Kami no Hoshi
by KawaiiKitsuneGirl
Summary: Naruto. Everyone thinks that they know him; a baka, the dead last, a loud mouth, an idiot. Friendly to all, friends with only a few. But what happens if this isn't the real Naruto? What happens when Naruto was never who people thought he was? What happens if... Naruto is a girl? AN: Sorta crack fic, but definitely plot and more genres going on (well, I think so anyway)
1. Let's tease a murderous demon!

Kami No Hoshi

Chapter 1- Let's tease a murderous demon!

Ok, so this is the first fanfic that I've ever written, if not the first that I've ever published, and I'm aiming for around 70k. This is based on the fact that a) Naruto and Kyuubi have a good relationship and b) Jiraiya trains Naruto from the ages of 8-11. Also, be aware that Naruto is very strong, so please, constructive criticism welcome but no flames! I have warned you J

Disclaimer: I own nothing of Naruto (apart from in my dreams) and I'm only going to put this once, so no-one sue me!

Here goes nothing!

EDIT: 20/1/16

Okay, I know that I said I would redo the first chapter ages ago. Well, I said to a few reviewers that I would, and a recent review has made up my mind. I shall finally redo this chapter! The others can wait for a bit…I just have a free evening, and waiting for my cookies to cool! I'm being productive today…Hope any current readers enjoy, and any new readers- you will have no idea what changed, so just sit back and relax!

EDIT: 28/1/16

I suck at productiveness. I basically deleted the entire chapter…thanks a lot, past self. Real helpful. Fiendishly short now…but it is so much better than before.

* * *

><p>The sun gleamed from high up in the sky, reflecting yellow light down onto the messy floor of a certain flat. The light crept across the piles of scrolls and clothing, sneaking around the various food packets that had been left out and wobbled cautiously up to a bed where a form lay draped in blankets.<p>

As the sun beams playfully swatted at the nose of the figure, a tan hand crept up to push it away. She didn't need the light. What had mornings ever done for her?

"Leave me alone," she mumbled, wriggling deeper into the covers where she laid with hair fanned out across it like a golden glow…an especially tangled one that was.

Brightness chased her softly, kissing and teasing at the girl's eyelids as she lay unmoving. "Five more minutes…." She muttered drowsily, the hand now coming to block her eyes, but the warmth of the beam finally encouraged her to flicker open tired eyes and sit up slowly, yawning all the while.

"Fine, I'm up…" the blonde muttered and finally blinked open cerulean eyes properly, and revealed the face of Uzumaki Naruto.

Grumbling slightly, the blonde swung heavy legs out of bed and padded softly across the room (instinctively avoiding the many obstacles that littered the floor), peeling open a fresh ramen container from the area in the corner where the kettle lived, and pouring the cold water in absentmindedly.

A quick hand seal brought forth a short burst of flames from her mouth, and she settled down to eat her steaming food in comfort.

**"Really, using my teachings for something so small," **a muttered voice shook their head disapprovingly at the girl, but Naruto was unfazed.

**"Always be prepared,"** she countered, digging into her meal and waking up a bit.

Kyuubi subsided with a small grumble, and Naruto let out a sleepy grin.

It wasn't that she didn't appreciate and love the giant fox, but some things were worth wasting chakra on. It wasn't like there was a shortage on it, especially after all the training she had been given by both the fox, Jiraiya-sensei and Itachi-nii.

Naruto thought that it had worked as well, since she was now Kage level on ninjutsu, genjutsu and fuuinjutsu, whilst she was high jounin level at taijutsu, and at least Anbu captain level at her archery. She was still getting stronger though, even whilst she had to pretend to be an idiot to graduate to genin! What a high level!

She laughed to herself quietly as she pondered what her 'friends' would do if she ever gave up the mask. Probably take her to an adult, who would claim that she was possessed and execute her. It was almost enough to make Naruto lose her cheery mood...

**"Kit?"**

**"Morning Kyuu-chan!"**... but not quite. She, the prank 'king' of Konoha, found it a fun idea to insult and tease the demon trapped inside of her. Let it not be said that she was completely sane.

**"Kyuu-chan, are you there?"**At this the Kyuubi stifled a second groan, the first being the previous time that Naruto had called her Kyuu-chan. She was the great Kyuubi no Yoko, who could level mountains with one swipe of a tail, and she was reduced to a mere-

**"Yeah, I got it Kyuu,"** She blinked. Oh. She had been projecting her thoughts to Naruto again, and said girl had just insulted her! Her! She was the great Kyuubi no-

**"Kyuu-chan,"** And there she went again.

Inside the mindscape, Kyuubi rolled her eyes, and quickly looked around for something to get her blonde container back with. She saw it and smirked.

**"Hey Kit,"**

**"Hey, Kyuu-chan,"** Naruto smiled angelically (more than awake by this point) as she knew how riled up it made her tenant. But not this time. Oh no, now she had something to get her container back with.

**"I could have sworn that the academy started assigning teams 10 minutes ago, but if you don't want to go..."**

**"Damnit Kyuu! Why couldn't you have woken me up?"** Naruto replied frantically, hopping across the room to put on her socks as her trousers fell down, black material revealing orange underpants and a wide variety of seals. Grumpily the girl pulled it back up again, recklessly dragging the dark material up by the belt loop (Kyuubi sighed; soon it was going to break and then what would Naruto do? She'd have to resort to pulling them up by her waistband…and that would just become baggier and baggier, until one day it fell down in the middle of class and she would trip over her own feet in shock and fall onto someone and accidently ki-)

**"Oi. Kyuubi. You may think I'm an idiot, but I can still hear everything you're saying, especially when you blast them at me like that," **Naruto rolled her eyes, and Kyuubi sheepishly fell silent. However amusing the train of thought had been, it was not worth an angry Naruto. She knew just how powerful her container was, and considering her position as tenant…well, the only way she was going to beat Naruto without extreme use of trickery would be Naruto's death or loss of will.

**"I don't plan on dying anytime soon," **the blonde reassured, and done with the morbid thoughts for now, the long haired blonde grabbed her kunai pouch, fastened her poison and battered sword inside her seals, sealed away her backpack filled with emergency things if she needed to run for any reason and quickly performed the daily genjutsu.

With a small flash of chakra, the genjutsu had covered her lithe form, slender face and long hair, transforming it into a short and slightly chubby stature along with spiky hair to match. The girl sighed. She really did love this justsu…but she had to hate the _gouzen otokonoko _in equal measures.

The villagers would never leave her alone otherwise.

**"Wait, why am I thinking of this now? I need to get to that academy!"** she realised, and a final glance around her flat revealed nothing sensitive left lying about. It caused Naruto to nod with satisfaction, and she calmly turned around, opening the window… and leaping away as fast as was humanly possible.

After all, it was a big day.


	2. Genin is such a high rank

Chapter 2- Genin is such a high rank

The day was finally here, the day that the blonde had been anticipating for nearly all of her life. The day of the Genin exams. It had gone rather differently to how she had always envisioned this morning going; she had overslept and charged out of her 'home' as fast as she could instead of the leisurely morning spent practicing jutsus over and over again, but hey. She could manage. She didn't have three awesome senseis for nothing!

And maybe, just maybe, if she was put on a team with people she could trust then she could let go of the mask. It had served her well and faithfully all of these years, but she was sick and tired of it. Naruto sighed at the thought of it. Like she would be so lucky to have kind teammates who would put up with her real self.

Oh, if the rest of the idiots at the academy didn't notice the powerful, smart, depressed girl behind her genjutsu and faked self, then what was to say a jounin could? Even the ANBU who had 'watched' her since she was little had never noticed the genjutsu that Naruto had been holding since the age of six. Imbeciles. And they called themselves elite?

They couldn't even catch her after any of her pranks. Iruka was the only one who could catch her (well, excluding nakama of course) but maybe she should let the 'elite shinobi' of Konoha off a little... she did let the sensei catch him after all.

Naruto had decided long ago that Iruka was one of the best ones in the village. Sure, she knew that the man disliked him and Kyuu-chan-

**"Hey! I heard that," **

–sorry, the 'great and powerful Kyuubi no Yoko' (insert eye roll) but at least he kept tight control over that. Yes, he was good.

Unlike his silver-haired colleague, Mizuki, who made it his job to annoy and thwart the young jinchuriki at every point. It had considerably soured this last year at the academy.

But today, not even Mizuki could wipe the smile off the blonde's face, even as she swung into her seat as the bell rang for the start of class and Iruka-san (not sensei; that was for people who she respected and learnt something from) glared at her. She smiled sheepishly but brightly and reached for a pen, smiling joyfully all the while.

On the outside, that was. Inwardly, Naruto and Kyuubi watched sadly as Iruka's hand twitched ever so slightly towards his weapons pouch, where a ninja's kunai and shuriken were kept, as Naruto's hand stretched out into her bag.

Really. What was she going to do, chuck a kunai at someone in the middle of class and risk being watched, or worse, interrogated. Whilst Naruto knew that she could withstand nearly all forms of torture, having lived in the Red light district most of her short life, she had no particular desire to test if there were any that she couldn't withstand.

For now she was happy being a genin or a genin until she could leave the village...

**"Kit! Test!"**

**"Oh! Right. Thanks, Kyuu-chan!"** Naruto had got so distracted with her thoughts that she had missed the start of the test. She was going to pass this time. Nothing would stop her!

**"Well of course not. This is your last day here, for certain, because tomorrow we are meeting our team. You will pass, definitely! I'm not letting you fail this one. The only reason you couldn't get the last ones were because those idiotic villagers injured you so much you couldn't do any taijutsu, then that teme of a sensei Mizuki did all 20 of those genjutsu on that written paper! You'll pass with flying colours!"**

**"Umm...Kyuu-chan?"**

**"Yes?"** she growled back, still panting from her massive speech.

**"Thanks, but I have a test,"**

**"Oh. Right. Sorry kit, I'll leave you alone,"** Naruto laughed in her head and Kyuubi slowly backed off to have a snooze. Picking up her pencil, the hidden girl began to write again.

Three hours later Naruto ran out of the examination room, jumping for joy. She had done it! She was a genin! The last time that she had been this excited was when ero-sennin had taken her and Itachi-nii to buy her a new jumpsuit! It had been whilst she was a boy, obviously, and whilst she was very close with the two of them, only Itachi-nii knew her secret. Ero-kyofu...Naruto just didn't feel comfortable with him knowing, especially as perverted as he was with girls, so only Itachi-nii knew that she was a girl.

It was her secret to share with whoever she liked. And currently that was Itachi-nii. Although, if she pondered the question a handsome red head her age drifted to mind. If he ever noticed that she like him... then they could kiss and she would finally feel those soft lips crashing against her own, feel strong arms embrace her petite frame and keep her safe from the world, feel a body pressed against her own that fit like a puzzle piece...

No. Bad idea. Don't get distracted. You still have training to do! Kyuubi snickered as she saw Naruto's thoughts.

**"Ooh. Didn't know you were that mature. Seems a bit early to me!"** Naruto blushed at Kyuubi's comments and retorted

**"Oh yeah? Well ha! I'm a genin now. Besides, not like he'll ever notice me as anything romantic anyway..." **she trailed off dolefully.

**"Hey, don't be sad kit. It's fine! Maybe you'll see him soon... you never know,"**

**"Yeah, you're right Kyuu-chan,"** Naruto mustered up a fake smile and walked over to the swing. It wasn't technically hers, but for all the people that used it, it might well have been.

Ever since she sat on it on the first day, no one else ever came near it. Not after their parents had got to them anyway.

However, Naruto still liked to sit on the swing and it was a perfect place for gossip! When Kyuu-chan enhanced her senses, her hearing was good enough to reach the whole way across the playground. Usually this was a blessing, but today...

"Look, it's the demon brat,"

"He passed, did he? I bet the demon cheated,"

"He got more than he deserves, that little, disgusting, Kyu-"

"Haruhi! You're not meant to talk about it!"

"Who cares anyway? Why doesn't that demon just go and die? He could do the world a favour,"

"Don't worry, I agree..." The girls that had been 'discreetly' whispering about her walked off, still arguing. Naruto lowered her head, looking at her lap as blonde hair fell down and made a short curtain between her and the rest of the world. She didn't want the world and his wife to see her cry after all.

**"Kit? Are you okay?"** asked her best friend worriedly.

**"I'm fine,"** responded a trembling voice. It cracked slightly at the end, and Kyuubi quickly replied

**"Come on kit. Let's go home. I have a present for you..." **she said in a sing-song voice.

**"Ok Kyuu-chan. I'm coming,"** Naruto whispered, before standing up and running like a lit rocket back to her house. Carefully disabling the genjutsu trap, Naruto walked into the messy flat and sat down hard on her bed.

**"Come on girl. You know the rules, don't you. Conceal"**

**"Before I feel, I know,"** As Naruto spoke, she poured a bit of chakra into her home-made seal and set up a genjutsu around her, hiding her real actions from anyone looking in or coming in and creating the image of a happy blonde boy with ramen. Afterwards, she summoned her customary 30 clones.

"10 on fuuinjutsu, 10 on ninjutsu, 5 on chakra control and 5 on chakra sensing please," she asked her clones pleadingly. They all obeyed silently and let the young jinchuriki save herself the embarrassment of crying in front of herself , save one, and walked off to their designated training areas.

The last one stayed with her, and one of its friends quickly performed the kage bunshin technique to fill the gap in their group. This one crouched down next to where she had sat, setting up sound barriers around the flat (as was her normal job but nothing was normal anymore until this routine started to become all too normal in a world where she prided herself on surprises) almost controlling her emotions without any tears and only the slightest bit of trembling and said to her

"It's ok Naruto-dono. We're here for you, and so is Kyuu-chan. It's okay to cry now, we're safe here"

And that was it. As her clone's sympathetic hand placed itself gently on a shoulder, she surged forwards and hugged herself tightly. Naruto 2 hugged back and comforted her as tears trickled quietly down tanned skin.

"Shh, it's ok, they can't hurt you again. We have you now, they can't get here. We'll all be fine,"

Naruto said nothing, only whimpered and choked slightly on a muffled sob. No weaknesses. Wasn't that the rule? Shinobi rule number 25: a shinobi never shows his emotions. Screw the rule.

Naruto could make her own ones along with her loved ones. Bitter thoughts filled her mind as village insults drifted towards her, the most prominent being all alone. Alone. Always. No, no, no, now she had Itachi-nii and ero-sennin. Right? They... loved her. And she loved them.

**"Don't forget about me, poor little kit. I love you too,"**

And that was almost good enough for Naruto. She couldn't have the love of the one she loved as more than family, but she could have this; a family who loved her. Tears stopped streaking raw cheeks as the blonde remembered her family and nakama.

She fell asleep in the arms of her kind clone, and into her mindscape where the comfort of her best friend and surrogate mum waited for her.


	3. Unexpected serendipity

Chapter 3- Unexpected Serendipity

Inside Naruto's mindscape, she smiled and hugged Kyuu-chan. Kyuubi laughed at her face as she stood up.

**"You look like a tanuki! Like a certain jinchuriki I could mention..." **She wiggled her eyebrows at the young blonde as she was helped up.

**"Yeah, yeah. I thought you had a present for me, or was that just a way to trick me into coming in here so you could tease me?"**

**"Oh, don't worry kit. I have a present for you alright. Three in fact!"**

**"PRESENT!" **Naruto said/yelled. She loved presents! Even if they were only occasionally, it meant that people cared and thought about her and she could live with that.

**"Ok, so you know how you just passed the genin exam?"**

**"Kyuu-chan, how could I forget?"** retorted the girl with a roll of her eyes.

**"Well, I thought that it was time you had a way for your skills to be useful!"**

**"Oi! They are useful!"**

**"Yes, but this way you can actually use them without blowing your cover..."**

**"Fine, I'll bite. What did you get me, especially considering you can't leave my mindscape?"**

**"Tch, don't remind me. Anyway, your first gift, here,"** Kyuubi chucked a small satchel to Naruto. Curiously, she caught it out of the way and found...

**"Kyuu-chan! What do you expect me to spend this on!"**

A hell of a lot of money.

**"Well, first, before I answer your question, I need to give you the second gift,"**

**"Go on then!"** exclaimed an exuberant girl.

**"Okay, repeat after me. Saru, Tora, Ryu, Saru, Usagi, Saru!" Naruto **copied the handseals that Kyuubi had done, and was shocked when her money bag disappeared.

**"Hey! Kyuu-chan! You killed the money**!" Shaking her head, Kyuubi replied

**"No, silly kit, it's been sent to your world. You can use that jutsu to put things in here if you like as well. Just make sure you keep it organised!"**

**"Awesome! Thanks Kyuu-chan"** she grinned.

**"Wait, what was the money for anyway?"**

**"Well, I think it's time to buy you some decent shinobi clothes. After all, you can hardly be seen as the Kami no Hoshi wearing those things, can you?"** Naruto was silent for a moment then turned her head towards Kyuubi.

"What do you mean?" she asked, forgetting completely about her earlier tears.

**"I mean that with this money, we are going to go buy you some kick-ass clothes, and then with your third present, you are going to have an alter-ego!"**

"What, like superman?" Naruto asked sarcastically. Kyuubi caught the sarcasm but decided to ignore it.

**"Yes! Just like superman! Or like me and Kurama..."** She trailed herself off. Naruto noticed the slip and squeezed Kyuubi tightly.

**"Don't worry Kyuu-chan. Let's go find me some badass clothes!"** She didn't want to upset the kitsune, and bringing up memories of _her _alter ego Kurama wouldn't help. The blonde knew that Kyuubi hated it now, ever since that stupid jounin Toji Yami found out about her true nature whilst she and her family had been living a peaceful life pretending to be human, and had killed her kits and husband.

In a fit of rage Kyuubi had attacked the Konoha to get to the jounin, but ended up with Naruto. However, now wasn't the time to think on past evils; Kyuubi was saying something!

**"Of course kit, you're right. We need to be done before dawn, so hurry along! You get the third present after** we get back," Smiling, the jinchuriki left the mindscape and grabbed the money.

* * *

><p>Finally out of the village, Naruto released her henge and smiled. She had forgotten how free she felt outside of the glares and fake friends; it had been forever since she last did this. Spontaneously, the container decided to do something like this more often.<p>

**"So then kit. Where are we going?"** Kyuubi asked, breaking the peace that Naruto had been enjoying. Grumbling as she concentrated on her mindscape, she replied to Kyuubi.

**"Uno... Suna. I don't want to get caught without my henge in the village,"** Kyuubi sniggered.

**"Of course. Not like there's anyone there that you want to see in Suna..." **she hinted. Naruto blushed a brilliant crimson.

**"No Kyuubi-baka, I just want clothes!"**

**"Or no clothes you mean..."**

"No! I don't want to do that with Gaara! He's my friend, nothing else, however much I wish it!"

Birds fluttered away. Oops. In her anger at Kyuubi, Naruto had accidently started talking (or shouting) out loud. Blushing even more, Naruto hmphed and jumped faster. Kyuubi smirked from the confines of her cage. _Gotcha._

* * *

><p>At the edge of a forest, a young teen sat playing with the sand by his feet when all of a sudden a shout came from the forest. Automatically, sand flew up to protect him from the threat, but all that happened was a loud, familiar voice shouted<p>

"! I don't want to do that with Gaara! He's my friend, nothing else, however much I wish it!"...that was Naruto.

He had met the excitable blonde two years ago when she had been out scouting for a decent training place. He had been walking around the desert when he felt a massive spike of youkai and went to see what it was.

When he had arrived at the waterfall that the youkai came from, he was immediately enchanted by what he saw. It had been Naruto, a fellow jinchuriki, and she had been dancing on the water surface in nothing more than a two piece bikini.

Nothing had ever looked more beautiful to the affection-deprived boy than that sight of Naruto dancing with her long hair glowing in the faint moonlight and hips moving to the beat that only she could hear.

Of course, she had sensed him too, and after a brief, _friendly_ (no-one else had ever been friendly before) conversation she'd gone home and so had Gaara.

Since that fateful meeting, he'd only seen her a handful of times but had fallen hard for her. Keeping it from everyone else was easy, but there had been a few close encounters when she had left him standing on the roof with a dreamy smile on his face, and his siblings had come up to see where he had gone. It had been hard but the red head had changed his expression in the nick of time.

Talking of time, he wanted to meet her again before she had to go.

Setting off with yet another smile (they were around in abundance whenever _she_ was near) he followed the noise.

* * *

><p>Naruto glanced around the trees. There was nothing she could see, but there was <em>something <em>there, tickling the edge of her senses. There! It was there again!

Frowning, she set all of her chakra sensing abilities towards the faint chakra she could feel, and blushed heavily when she realised that it was Gaara's chakra _and he was headed towards her. _Kami, he hadn't heard her shout earlier had he? She really hoped not.

Smiling happily at the thought of seeing her crush again, she stopped and waited on the tree. After what seemed like an age (but was really only a few minutes) the girl spotted the fellow jinchuriki's tell-tale red hair move into the clearing.

Grinning at him in welcome, she hugged him. He stiffened and blushed as he felt her breasts squish against his chest, and she blushed as she felt a warm arm hug her in return. As was becoming normal recently, the sand made no move to attack, sensing that she meant no harm.

It was nice, to be able to trust someone not to hurt him, Gaara decided.

"So. What was that about wanting to be more than friends?" he whispered to her. Naruto shivered as his breath tickled the back of her neck.

"Uno... "

"Naruto," Gaara said seriously. She pulled back and looked him in the eye as his serious tone caught her attention.

"Whatever you are going to answer, please be certain of it before telling me," he told her, knowing that he wouldn't be able to stand the heartbreak if she lied to him.

Urged on by Kyuubi in the back of her mind, Naruto gazed at him, taking in everything she could see. She saw handsome, chiselled features, unsoftened by the small smile that usually graced his lips, a smooth forehead, brilliant eyes and pain at the thought of losing her to anyone else. In her normal, split-second decision, Naruto smiled.

She leaned forwards and kissed him.

And there went most of her night.

* * *

><p>4 hours later, as the sun kissed the edge of the horizon on its way to the sky, a weary but ecstatic Naruto walked in. She had spent the night on a romantic date with her <em>boyfriend<em> (she loved that word now) and had bought clothes with him, laughing at how he had reacted when he put on her final choice of outfit.

He had walked over to her, put his hands on her head and said

"You. Are. Beautiful," enunciated with kisses. And a blush, obviously, because Gaara was Gaara and she wouldn't have it any other way.

The future suddenly looked brighter with Gaara by her side.


	4. Hokage? Nah, let's surpass them!

A/N thank you so much to everyone who reviewed! I tried to change the bits that everyone said, and I hope that it makes more sense now. Like I said, first fanfic I've ever written (although I have published some others as well) so please review and tell me how i can improve and what i am (hopefully) doing well!

Chapter 4- Hokage? Nah, let's surpass them!

Naruto wasn't so much weary as exhausted as she dragged herself into the academy the next day. It was _way _too early to be up in her opinion (although Kyuubi said that she deserved it for staying up until 6 that morning.

Naruto had grumpily replied that she hadn't heard Kyuubi complaining last night, more like egging her on! Kyuubi had replied touché and retreated into the back of her abyss).

She had unfortunately had to cover her amazing new outfit with her normal genjutsu, and although it was solid at least Naruto knew that she had all of her things ready in case she needed to go anywhere.

You never know what might happen when everyone around you hates you.

Shaking her head and irritatedly moving her legs, she entered the classroom. It was full of noise, as per usual, and even from the door way she could hear the squeals of the four fangirls who had passed the test over their 'Sasuke-kun'.

Really! They were kunoichi now; they should act like it.

The two most annoying ones (and how Naruto hoped they wouldn't be on her team) were two girls called Ino and Sakura.

Ino was pretty, and had long blonde hair with blue eyes. She liked to wear a short purple crop top and matching skirt, and had bandages wrapped around her stomach and legs. Her newly gained hitai-ate was blue, and she had tied it around her waist like a belt.

On the other hand, Sakura had a large forehead and long _pink _hair (natural? Naruto wasn't sure) which used to be tied back with a red ribbon, but was now held back by her Konoha hitai-ate. She also wore a plain red dress and blue open toed boots.

And both were arguing at the top of their lungs over Sasuke.

Naruto sighed, and quickly made her way to the back of the classroom before either of them could see her and start attacking her, as they had done for so many years simply because Naruto sometimes saved the broody Uchiha from going deaf by taking the seat next to him, and solving the arguments over who would sit next to the 'oh-so-amazing' boy. Not that anyone ever said thank you of course.

Moaning loudly she thumped her head on the desk and proceeded (or so everyone thought) to fall asleep.

Really, she was talking to Kyuubi who had gone all mystic on her and refused to tell her what her last present was, as she had come back too late to receive it.

Mysterious Kyuubi was annoying.

Although not as annoying as the bloody banshees who were still whining over the empty seat. Idiots.

She had never been more thankful for the well timed arrival of Iruka-san; that was for sure.

Plus they were learning their teams today! It was going to be an interesting day... as soon as Iruka decided to stop droning on about 'what an honour it was to be a shinobi' and he hoped that 'every one of you goes far in this life'.

It took a lot longer than Naruto was expecting to announce the teams. The scarred chuunin went on for about 20 minutes on the importance of honour and blah blah blah.

Really, Naruto had learnt this at the age of 6!

But of course, Iruka's (long and boring) speech had to come to an end at some point, and so the end of the talk found the class sitting on the edge of their seat, eagerly anticipating the announcement of their teams.

"...Team 7 is Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke," Sakura squealed in delight, whilst Sasuke merely grunted. Naruto was dramatically bashing her head on the table, whilst moaning to Kyuu-chan about the unfairness of life.

Kyuubi just told her to shut up and listen. So she did.

"Team 8 is Hyuuga Hinata, Inuzuka Kiba and Aburame Shino. Team 9 is still in circulation, so Team 10 is Nara Shikamaru, Akimichi Chouji and Yamanaka Ino. Team 11 is..."

Naruto stopped listening when her friends were called out and wondered what she had done to be put on a team like this. What evil had she performed in order to get this team?

* * *

><p>She was thinking along the lines of slightly more violent actions when their team was the last one left in the room after half an hour. Why, why had Kami cursed her to be stuck with a broody emo and a squealing fan girl? Not to mention the late sensei.<p>

So their sensei had left her alone with them. And now she was bored.

* * *

><p>3 hours later and their sensei still hadn't arrived. Naruto was about ready to die of boredom. There was only so long that Naruto could stand playing (well, mainly losing) Shougi games against Kyuubi, and only so long she could study her teammates.<p>

Sakura didn't seem too bad, but they'd barely spoken a single word to each other. Mainly, the idiotic girl had nagged 'her' Sasuke-kun about a date. She almost felt sorry for him.

She didn't know what was so good about him anyway. Yes, he had smooth navy hair (styled like a chicken's butt), was handsome (or would be if he _smiled_) and wore co-ordinated clothes (never mind that Naruto had more style than him and all of his clothes had the Uchiha symbol on the back anyway). Really, he was more trouble than he was worth.

Unlike this trick though.

She was not going to let her sensei get away with this. The girl stood up and wandered over to the board and picked up the board rubber, ignoring the curious look from Sakura and the one of disdain from Sasuke.

Holding it firmly, she discreetly added a touch of chakra to prevent her sensei from realising it was there and tied a piece of string onto it (never mind that it was her henged ninja wire. She could get a bunshin to collect it later) and hoisted it up onto the edge of the door and its frame.

It was set.

When the door opened, the rubber would fall onto whoever had opened it and shower them in chalk dust. Not to mention that she had added her special seal so that when it touched (hopefully her sensei's) shoulder it would transfer onto them and every time they touched something fluffy for the next hour it would stick to them.

Ha! Served them right for being late.

* * *

><p>Her trap paid off about half an hour later (after 3 and a half hours of waiting!). The door opened wide and she caught a quick glimpse of silver hair and a black mask before powder obscured her view. She started cheering happily<p>

"Yay! I hit sensei! Perfect shot! Goal!"

"Shut up Naruto!" Sakura yelled at the blonde's jubilations.

"But Sakura!" Naruto whined back. The pinkette (A/N is that a word? Well, now it officially is!) opened her mouth to retort but before she could, sensei butted in.

"My first impression is... I hate you. Meet me on the roof in five minutes," he said, then shun shined away in a cloud of smoke that made Naruto and her new found team mates cough and splutter.

**"Show-off," **she muttered to Kyuubi who grinned back.

**"And you're not?"** The blonde's silence only amused the Kyuubi more.

* * *

><p>3 minutes and 47 seconds later, all 4 team members were on the roof. Sakura was panting whilst the other two were barely fazed after the run up the stairs to the top.<p>

Their teacher studied them with a unreadable expression and critical eye, and Naruto took the chance to do the same.

He had poofy silver hair, in spikes across his head and his hitai-ate was pulled down lopsidedly to cover, as Naruto knew from her bingo book, a Sharingan eye. He was quite tall, and had no sword but his posture spoke of ANBU.

The rest of his face was covered by a plain black mask, leaving him with one eye to see and everything else covered. Suddenly he said

"OK... let's begin with some introductions,"

"Why don't you go first sensei?" Sakura asked politely. The others kept quiet.

"Ohh...me? My name is Hatake Kakashi. I have no desire to tell you guys about my likes and dislikes. Dreams for the future? Hmm... I have lots of hobbies," he finished.

Naruto mentally snorted.

**"Well, that was informative,"** she told Kyuubi.

**"Very much so, I agree,"**

**"How stupid does he think we are? That actually gives away a lot of information..."**

**"You are stupid! Well, your mask is..."**

**"Erm... Thanks?"**

**"Welcome. In return I'll tell you that both of your teammates have introduced themselves, and are waiting for you,"**

"NANI!" she shouted out loud. Kakashi raised an eyebrow (well, stretched an eye seeing as you couldn't see his eyebrows).

"We are currently introducing ourselves...?" She blushed.

"I know that! Ok, me... My name is Uzumaki Naruto! I like... cup ramen! What I like even more is the restaurant ramen that Iruka-sensei buys me. I dislike waiting three minutes for the water to boil... and my dream is to surpass the Hokage!"

(A/N I love how in the real thing he doesn't say he wants to be Hokage at first, he just says he wants to surpass the Hokage!)

Everyone looked shocked and sweatdropped at how much she liked ramen.

Kyuubi laughed at her.

Finally Kakashi pulled himself together and turned to his group.

"Well...ok then. We meet at training ground 7 tomorrow. Be there at 7, don't be late and don't eat breakfast!"

"Why not sensei?" the predictable Sakura asked.

"Because you might throw up. Ja ne!" he replied, and was gone.

And that was the end of that.


	5. You dented my kettle!

Chapter 5- You dented my kettle!

After Kakashi-sensei had left, Naruto had tried to ask the others if they wanted any ramen. She had been hoping that they would agree, but when Sasuke-teme had turned her down... well.

Needless to say she had come away with aching ears after Sakura had assumed that Naruto wanted a date, and besides, she doubted that the kunoichi would have come as friends if Sasuke wasn't there anyway.

With a sigh, Naruto had left them and _walked_ back to the apartment, knowing that anything too high skilled (like roof hopping) would draw too much attention to the girl who was currently trying to be inconspicuous.

When she had arrived back, at around 3, she had set her normal 20 clones up to do the fuuinjutsu, ninjutsu, chakra control and chakra sensing and then had proceeded to train her taijutsu with a few more clones.

Which brought her to where she was now, 5 hours later, sitting alone in her flat with the clones gone and panting heavily after her intense taijutsu.

It hadn't been the original plan to end at only 8, but Naruto did recognise the need to eat and sleep every so often, and besides, Kyuu-chan had promised her the third graduation gift if she came early that night.

And Naruto never turned down a present.

Finally bothering to pull her tired self off the floor, Naruto walked around the flat and picked up the writing materials that a few of her clones had forgotten to tidy and wandered into the kitchen.

She picked up the kettle and filled it with water to boil, then crashed around in the cupboard for a pack of ramen and her mixed vegetables. Bunging them all into a bowl, she settled at the table for a second until the water was boiled.

**"Kyuu-chan? Are you awake?"** she asked quietly.

**"Huh? Yeah, I'm awake. Just a bit... weary. You might want to come in here soon, before I fall asleep though,"**

Naruto frowned and said nothing; although thinking about how strange it was that Kyuubi was actually complaining about rest when she liked to pretend that she was never tired.

Oh well, she could ask about that in a minute but right now it was food time. She stood up leisurely and reached across for the kettle.

Then a noise from behind caught her attention.

Naruto span around, kettle in one hand and kunai in the other as she caught the blade of a sword on it.

Quickly as the assailant's plan failed, they drew the sword back and darted forwards, attempting to break underneath Naruto's block.

She didn't even flinch as the sword came close to her legs, and suddenly flickered out of sight just before the cold metal touched the limbs, moving so fast that the attacker didn't see her coming as the kettle was swung and boiling water poured out onto their scalp and the plastic whacked their neck.

They fell unconscious even as the kunai was driven hard though the neck.

She bent over slowly and touched their wrist, feeling for a pulse but found none. The attacker was dead. Once again reaching out, she grabbed the edge of the black mask across their face and pulled it off in one sharp movement. Underneath was a young boy, with skin as pale as a ghost's and a shock of black hair.

There were curiously feminine features on him, with blank dark eyes and an expressionless mouth, so he had had a _lot _of emotional conditioning if he had remained like that in death.

Naruto felt for a pocket in the trousers and found none, but spotted a storage seal on the inside of the sleeve. She pushed her chakra into it and out popped a mission request.

It had written on it _Assassination of Uzumaki Naruto, Kyuubi jinchuriki. Mission level: S rank. Mission accepted, Root ANBU Sai. _(A/N sorry! Sai doesn't fit in with my plot line and I wanted something exciting to happen this chapter)

On the back it had written Root ANBU. Council of Konoha.

She sadly closed the young boy's eyes, and performed a quick fire jutsu. The body and clothes quickly burnt into ashes, with she carefully scooped up and put into a little pot that used to hold her jam, before walking across the room and activating a tiny blood seal, in pale ink, which opened to reveal... a wall of shelves.

Every shelf was almost completely filled with little pots of ash, and each one had been beautifully decorated with the date, a picture of them in life, name and/or title and who the mission had come from.

The blonde slowly raised her newest pot up on a shelf. It was yet another assassination attempt, one of about 50, and so far all but around 5 were from the Konohan council.

It made her sad.

How could they hate someone so much that they were willing to try and kill her time and time again, all the while knowing that the last one hadn't come back, and this assassin was unlikely to survive either?

Naruto was truly disgusted by the low level of respect held for human lives by this council, who supposedly did things for the _good _of Konoha and _all_ of its inhabitants. So much for that idea.

Apparently she didn't count as a citizen of Konoha... hehe. That was a funny thought.

Ooh... the world... her flat... it was so bright... and spinning. Was it meant to be spinning... it looked funny... even those jars... funny... No! They were not funny... poison.

Fumbling fingers lashed out at the blood seal and sealed it hurriedly. Woozy, she looked down at herself and saw her fingers.

Ooh... purple... were they always like that? NO! Poison, had to get to bed... funny...the colours look weird from this angle...

Naruto fell to the floor and slept.

* * *

><p>In her mindscape Naruto woke up, shaking off the effects of the poison. It wasn't too bad, Kyuubi would soon get rid of it but she might be late for tomorrow.<p>

Oops.

Maybe she should have worn a glove or something when she closed that boy's eyes. He really was determined, fighting her with something on his skin so that if he died, all it would take was one touch and she would be gone too.

He had forgotten to take into account Kyuubi though, who could heal Naruto at amazingly fast speeds.

And had a present for her!

Whirling around, she walked right up to the den, and kept on going inside.

Originally, it had been some sort of cave, with bars keeping Kyuu-chan away from her but after they had become friends, Naruto had thought it cruel and changed the seal into a collar so that her fiery friend could wander where she liked.

Kyuubi had been happy.

**"Kyuu-chan? Are you there**?" A loud noise sounded from ahead, and she squinted into the dark part of the den that was made to sleep in.

**"Yes kit, just a bit-" **she stifled a yawn. **"Tired,"**

**"Are you ok?" **the blonde jinchuriki asked anxiously.

**"I'm fine; this present...just... took a bit of energy to make,"** and with that Kyuubi held out the most amazing weapon that Naruto had ever seen.

First, the arrows. She had never seen anything like them! They were made of ash, like normal military arrows, and they were a matt black. The end was shaped in a point, but the edges of the point were flat and sharp, unlike anything Naruto had ever seen before.

The feathers attached to the ends of them were a very dark blue, and had steel streaks running through them. When Naruto lifted another one out of the quiver to compare the two, the first one flew back in.

Surprised by it, Naruto tried it again, but this time checked what was in the end of the quiver.

It was a magnet. Kyuubi must have made the magnet stronger, so that the arrows would return again, until the magnetic charge ran out. If she was lucky though, it would last a good two years with the amount of power that Kyuubi liked to put in things.

There was also a bow, midnight blue, and it too, was made of Ash. It felt strong and supple in her hands, and she was unsurprised to see that was the perfect weight.

Engraved faintly on the handle were the words _Kami no Hoshi_, and just above the handle there was a tiny little notch in the otherwise smooth wood. Curious, she pressed it and without a sound the wood there lifted up.

Hidden underneath the newly discovered flap was a tiny red fire opal. It was shaped as a _magen david_, the star of David, because, as Naruto knew, the strongest shape is a triangle and this star was made of triangles.

She was awed.

Using her chakra sensing skills, the young shinobi concentrated hard on the jewel and was astonished to find almost six tails worth of chakra swirling inside. It felt like Kyuu-chan's red chakra... no it was her blue chakra... it was purple!

Lost for words, she looked up at Kyuubi, who chuckled wearily at her expression.

**"It can hold as much chakra as you can put in, and when you get to a high enough level in fuuinjutsu, you can fit seals to make your chakra into any chakra type you'd like apart from blood lines. Currently there is six tails in there, which I have changed into something between your chakra and mine,"**

**"Wow Kyuu-chan,"** Naruto whispered reverently.

**"This is...the most amazing gift I've ever got," **Naruto finished, before carefully placing the arrows onto her back, and looping the bow over her arm.

It fitted perfectly, slotting in like a puzzle piece.

Naruto ran forwards, and hugged her best friend and mother figure, who smiled gently and patted her head.

That was where they slept that night, Naruto poisoned and Kyuubi exhausted, together in their own world.

* * *

><p>AN I felt like a bit of excitement that chapter so cue Sai!

I'm sorry I killed him but he doesn't fit in, and I wanted another reason for Naruto to dislike Konoha.

Spoilers, sweetie!

Please read and review; if there is one new review then I promise to update on the next scheduled date, otherwise it might take a tad longer...

J

J


	6. Stealth? What's that?

Chapter 6-Stealth? What's that?

A body stirred. Eyelids fluttered. A hand twitched. A groan sounded.

"Kami, why would I sleep like this?" the voice questioned, stretching out the body carefully and standing up.

Naruto sleepily looked around her and saw the... kitchen. Huh? Why was she in the kitchen? What kind of crazy party had she-

Oh. Oops. Poison, that was right. Sadly, the blonde recalled the boy that she had been forced to kill... Sai, was it? Yes, Sai. It said so on his jar (that needed decorating. Mustn't forget).

**"Morning," **whispered Kyuubi in Naruto's head. She smiled and replaced her genjutsu.

**"Morning Kyuu-chan," **she replied, a bit grumpy but she had just spent the night on the floor. A cold, hard floor, she might add. Without ramen... Ramen!

She jumped over to the kettle happily (wincing a little as muscles twanged, but more so at the giant dent in her kettle. It was there from the fight, but still! It was irritating!)

The battered kettle beeped loudly as the water boiled, and she poured it eagerly onto the open ramen that was still on the table.

Settling down happily, the jinchuriki slurped her ramen down in record time, then ate another. She was eating for two meals after all!

Stealing a quick glance at the clock, her eyes widened noticeably when she realised that she was two hours late.

**"Kyuu-chan! Do I have everything?!"** she yelled in her mind, panicking before her first impression on her new sensei.

**"Don't worry kit, you have everything... just might want to take the bow and arrows out of here. You can add some more energy to it later!"**

**"Thanks again for it, Kyuu-chan. It really is amazing,"**

**"Use it wisely,"** came the solemn reply. Naruto nodded once, sharp, serious, then stood up straight and summoned the sword from her mindscape.

It appeared in a dim flash of yellow, and the girl couldn't help but admire it one last time (look at the points on those arrows!) before regretfully putting it into the sheath and attaching them to her back.

It melded into her disguise, and she watched pouting as her newest possession vanished.

But oh well. It was time to go anyway.

She bounced out of the window cheerfully, landing carelessly on the street below and grinned widely.

* * *

><p>Naruto sighed, turning around yet again to pace the other way. She had run all of the way there for nothing! That stupid sensei hadn't even arrived by the time she reached the clearing, so all that was left to do whilst under her teammates watchful eyes was to sneak out a kage bunshin (or two) and train lightly against one in taijutsu.<p>

Of course, they had also used the mind jutsu that Kyuubi had taught them so that the others wouldn't notice the invisible attacks.

The other kage bunshin hid behind a tree and summoned the usual set of 20 training clones who silently bounded away.

Naruto kept on fighting.

Finally, three hours after the time when they were supposed to arrive, a silver haired jounin decided to appear. Birds squawked and flew away from trees as the two loud genin screamed viciously

"You're late!" Kakashi merely flapped a hand.

"Maa, maa minna-san, I was on my way here when I saw an old lady crossing a road who looked like she needed some help..."

They snorted in disbelief.

Kakashi returned the scornful expressions with a happy crinkled eye, and reached into a pocket dramatically.

"This is what you have to get in order to pass the test and become a genin team," he stated calmly. Three, two, one...

"So we aren't already genin then?" Sakura demanded, but Naruto interrupted her with a sly smile.

"Fine then. We'll just pass another genin test," Naruto smirked back at their leader, who pondered Naruto for a second. She had said we... she was already thinking of them as a team. Good for them!

Unfortunately for Kakashi, 'we' had actually meant her and Kyuubi. Of course, there was no need for _him_ to know, was there...

"This alarm is set for noon," Kakashi stated, pulling out an alarm clock and setting it down on the tree stump in front of the three children. They looked at it curiously as Kakashi went on

"Those who cannot get a bell by noon... get no lunch," he said, pulling out two silver bells and twirling them gracefully around his finger. Naruto noted the two bells, but before she could ask the obvious question their sensei said

"There are only two bells, so one of you will definitely fail. And...whoever doesn't get a bell has to go back to the academy,"

There was silence as the bombshell was dropped. Naruto and Sakura opened their mouths to respond, but the jounin quickly cut them off.

"And... start!"

Two pairs of legs ran off. Naruto longed to do the same (it was sensible when facing Kakashi, or team up like they were supposed to, or even win it by herself like she knew she could. It would be tricky, but possible) but she knew, as a good actress, that her character would never do that.

So she waited.

"The basics of a ninja is to hide yourself well. Good you have all hidden yourselves we-" he turned around.

"Umm... you're a bit off," he told Naruto, making her whine at Kyuubi about her 'amazing stealth' gone to waste.

Sakura, tucked under a bush, resisted the urge to snicker at Naruto making a fool of himself.

Sasuke sighed quietly from his tree and thought **'what a moron'.**

Neither knew that Naruto was having the same thoughts as them.

"Come and fight me!" Naruto shouted out loud.

**"I feel like such an idiot..." **she moaned inwardly. Kyuubi smirked smugly at her and replied

**"You're the one who chose this mask kit! You lay your own bed!"**

**"Doesn't make it any comfier!"** she shot back. The kitsune sweatdropped at her lovable container, who had completely missed the entire point of the saying.

**"Oh well. Just get on with it! The quicker we pass this, the quicker we can go train,"**

**"True. I'll be quick,"** Naruto allowed, then narrowed her eyes at her opponent.

"I said fight me! The only thing a bit off her is your hair cut!" she sprang forwards, at a fraction of the speed she possessed, towards her sensei.

He reached into his weapons pouch, slow and stately, and she skidded to a halt.

**"He's going to use weapons?" **she asked Kyuubi.

**"No kit, look at the position of his hand. It has to be gripping something rectangular, and odds are that it won't be a weapon. Who can fight with a weapon that would be shaped like that?"**

**"I see,"** Naruto replied calmly. On the outside though, she was still pretending to be tense and worried, sweating like a pig with her body leaned forwards, arms back.

It was a rubbish defence, and she knew it.

"First rule of taijutsu..." Kakashi told her, 'scaring' her.

And then he pulled out...


	7. Don't fall asleep on the job!

Chapter 7- Don't fall asleep on the job

...a book.

Her mouth hung wide open and she asked

"But... hey! Hey! Why do you have a book?" she asked confusedly. Inside the mindscape, where she was free of outsiders, she and Kyuubi rolled around on the floor laughing.

For you see, it wasn't any old book.

It was one they knew very well; ero-sennin's Icha Icha Paradise.

They had been there when he was writing it (the main reason that Naruto had decided it was a very bad idea to tell him Naruto's secret) and had been forced to read the drafts of the final copy.

And now Kakashi was reading it!

Naruto pretended to be angry though, and launched forwards once again.

A punch was thrown. He stepped backwards. A kick was aimed. He ducked. A second punch was thrown... and hit wood.

Naruto stood there, 'surprised' as the silver haired shinobi poofed out of existence. The presence of a dangerous person was felt behind her, but the blonde controlled her natural instinct to turn around and injure the threat, still under the charade of Naruto.

"A ninja isn't supposed to get caught from behind, baka," the voice said lazily.

"Huh?" dramatic, of course, Naruto thought to herself, rolling her eyes as she waited for the next move. Sadly, Naruto knew that it would involve her getting hit.

Damn.

Kyuubi was right, she should have chosen a mask that didn't have to be stupid the entire time.

**"Too late now!"** the gleeful voice of Kyuubi whispered into her ear. Naruto physically jumped as Kyuubi pounced on her from behind and hugged her.

Fortunately, no-one in the outside world noticed her jump from anything out of the ordinary; they were focused on Kakashi, currently in the seal of a tiger.

It was commonly used for fire jutsus, and the last members of the team were freaking out (calmly- definitely calm) that their sensei was serious enough to use a katon jutsu from such close quarters.

And then he called out the name of the jutsu.

"Sennen Goroshi!"

Naruto hardened her skin with chakra, not enough that he would notice, but enough so that the technique barely hurt at all.

Still had the same force though. She went flying through the air, carefully gathering enough wind chakra to shield her from the drop, and landed in the middle of the woods.

That was really going to smart later.

She sighed, but since the jinchuriki had _really _had enough of this 'fight the teacher without showing any skill' game that she was so good at, Naruto walked to the nearest tree and climbed it.

Sitting about half way up, she looked across towards her old position and saw Sasuke for a second, before he carefully climbed down and away from the tree, presumably towards the sensei.

Yawning widely, Naruto subtly switched the jutsu _gouzen otokonoko_ (phantom boy) to take chakra from her chakra seal carefully inked onto the inside of her real jacket.

After all, she couldn't have the genjutsu fall down whilst she was asleep and catching up on the rest from last night that she didn't have.

Never mind that she could go for a week without sleep; this was boring and unnecessary and therefore she could sleep through.

Naruto closed her eyes and slept.

* * *

><p>Sasuke frowned. Not that it was unusual or anything; but he was frowning at the fact that a team member was missing. A certain hyperactive, idiotic shinobi was running wild.<p>

And Kami knew that was never a good thing.

Kakashi was frowning too, slightly worried for the missing idiot of their... group. It wasn't a team yet, oh no, the children had failed and failed badly. He had given them a second chance, supposedly after lunch, but no blonde had turned up for lunch.

If he (A/N I figure 'hey, his thoughts. I should write he' so yeah) didn't turn up soon, then he was going to reveal his position at the edge of the woods to find them. The Kyuubi container couldn't be left alone for too long after all.

Meanwhile, Sakura wasn't at all worried.

**"Cha!"** she told inner Sakura irritatedly.

**"Sasuke-kun's ignoring me! I bet it's that baka's fault. Where is he anyway? I bet he got lost!" Inner Sakura agreed...**

Until Sasuke pushed himself up and announced that he was going to go find Naruto.

"What! Sasuke-kun, why? I bet that the idiot just got lost anyway!" she latched herself onto his arm as he started to walk away.

"Sakura. Let go of my arm. I am going to find Naruto, because he will be a liability left alone without food," Sasuke said evenly.

Sakura pouted at him as she reluctantly let go, then followed him as he started to walk away.

Quickly she caught up, falling into step with the quick paced boy.

"What do you want?" he grunted, looking straight ahead with narrowed eyes.

"Will you go on a date with me after this, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked, peeking shyly at him.

"No," he responded firmly and walked off.

Sakura stopped walking as she saw him walk off, and sighed sadly. He wouldn't go on a date. Oh well. He would surely agree tomorrow! She had long hair after all, and everyone knew that Sasuke-kun liked long hair.

* * *

><p>Sasuke wandered further into the woods, eyes peeled back searching irritatedly for a glimpse of orange. Orange meant Naruto. That was his goal.<p>

However, the best he could see was green, dark green, light green, a bit more green, brown, yellow, gree- yellow.

Black eyes zeroed in on blonde hair. Yellow was almost orange, and at least Naruto was easy to spot. Sasuke let a small smirk cross cold features as a top-quality, polished shuriken was pulled out of a pocket. Hah. That would teach Naruto to sleep whilst he was meant to be doing something.

The weapon whistled slightly in the air as it cut straight through to where Naruto was. He lay there sleeping as the throwing star passed over his head, and stabbed itself through the material on his other side.

Naruto tried to shuffle over in his sleep, and ended up crashing into the tree he had been lying on. Eyes now open, he shot upwards as the Uchiha watched, satisfied with his work.

* * *

><p>Naruto had in fact, not been asleep. Well, she had been at first (she had spent way too much time with Gaara when she should be sleeping) but the instant Sasuke had come within range of her chakra sensors, she had been jolted from a peaceful rest into a rough tree. Not the best sleeping place, but it would do.<p>

She had then discreetly shifted her _gouzen otokonoko _to her again, since it made no sense for it to be on her spare reserves when Naruto had plenty of chakra ready to power it with.

The shuriken had been thrown seconds before Naruto started, but she hadn't bothered moving since it would miss.

However, she had thrown in some realistic acting for Sasuke's benefit by pretending that the shuriken had woke her up and made her crash into the tree.

She thought he had bought it. Kyuubi had applauded her the entire time from inside her head, so the blonde had been kind of distracted at that moment in time.

She sprung herself from the tree and swung down like a monkey, making certain of acquiring a few leaves in her hair so that she could still be a baka.

Reaching the floor, a hand reached up and scratched a neck in 'embarrassment' and Naruto apologised (slightly) to Sasuke. Then jumped away.

* * *

><p>Sasuke frowned. There was something wrong with this, something suspicious with this scene, but or the life of him, the young prodigy couldn't figure out what.<p>

The forest? Nope, the only sounds made were animals. Someone following them? He quickly extended his chakra senses, but there was nothing within 10 meters of them. Naruto? No he was the same as normal. That must mean-

He was the _same as normal_. Sasuke had snagged that horrible orange jumpsuit of his with the shuriken. Examining Naruto's left shoulder sneakily, he confirmed what he had suspected. It had definitely hit.

So where was the hole?

(A/N Ok, I'm sorry but I have a stupidly busy weekend, so I'll update as soon as I can, but no promises!)


	8. Frog-san is on the loose!

Chapter eight- Frog-san on the loose!

Sorry for lateness! I have a full version of this chap now, and I will update another tomorrow. Thank you so much to who provided a full weapon analysis (hence the change of sword to bow) and commented on a few unrealistic parts of the story!

Here is the suspicious Kakashi that you thought it would be better to include!

Anyway... here we go, chapter eight.

* * *

><p>Kakashi watched the scene in front of him with a small, almost hidden smile. The group that he saw earlier hating, ignoring or trying to kill each other were now eating lunch peacefully together. The Kage Bunshin that had been watching Sakura had told him how she had yelled 'NARUTO' until he had heard her voice and come back to where they were all meant to be.<p>

Sasuke had played his part by finding the young shinobi in the first place, and at least the boy had had enough sense to not try to hit Naruto with the shuriken. It had gone straight over him into that dreadful material of orange that the blonde called clothes, and pierced him to the tree.

It had been hilarious.

As was the scene he was watching write now. It was better than his Icha Icha Paradise, which was now residing in a pocket as the drama unfolded before his very (hidden) eyes.

Naruto had been scoffing his food when Sakura hit the back of his head for bad manners, but had caused him to drop his lunch and fly towards Sasuke. The boy had been shocked (and Kakashi had actually read the emotion off his face!) when a 40kg pre-teen came flying through the air and landed in his lap. Facing towards Sasuke.

Headfirst.

* * *

><p>Naruto was still complaining about the 'incident' that night to Kyuubi. She had been forced to land in that <em>teme's<em> lap headfirst.

**"For Kami's sake, why couldn't I at least have landed in some other position? We were both mortified!"**

Kyuubi snickered at her kit, still bright red from earlier events.

**"Oh I don't know, are you sure that you didn't enjoy that? I mean, you got to feel his... you know. Even better, you bit it!"**

Groaning, the blonde put her head in her hands as Kyuubi brought up the details.

**"Oh? So you did like it then? Just wait until I tell Gaara about this! He's either gonna be very pissed off, or he's going to laugh his butt of like I am!"**

**"What is going to cause me to do this?"** A voice cut in to their conversation.

Twirling quickly with her bow drawn and an arrow notched, both females sighed as they saw that it was Gaara, come to visit them in the mindscape like they'd arranged with Shukaku.

Smirking at Kyuubi, Naruto quickly placed both weapons back in their rightful places and ran over to her boyfriend.

**"Gaara-kun!" **She yelled joyfully. He raised one non-existent eyebrow at her antics, since they had seen each other the previous night, but smiled and hugged her anyway.

They both drew back and kissed lightly.

Gaara then pulled her back to look at her new outfit again. She looked down at it too.

The open toed sandals were standard commission and would let her move freely whilst having some form of protection. The fishnet wrapped around her ankles, arms and upper chest was to prevent any of her clothing from trailing.

Her cloak was several shades of black and grey as it trailed lazily behind her. It was one of her favourite possessions now; it had seals to make it warmer, cooler and unnoticeable when she decided to activate one, and her personal favourite, the one that she had been working on as an attempt to copy the Hiraishin. It was experimental, but it should return anything that she attached another seal to... in theory.

There was a dark black top, long sleeved with elastic at the ends of the sleeves to prevent it from being caught in the bow string, where the fishnet didn't cover, and it was made of a light metal that would stop most kunai and senbon from reaching her. Only a formidable enemy would be good enough to puncture this armour and get through her guard.

The trousers were the same colour and had hundreds of pockets, which Naruto had already carefully inked storage seals onto. Most of them held spare weapons, of hundreds of types (that pocket held the exploding notes, that one held the fan for use with wind jutsus, and that one held the windmill shuriken... no that held ramen... where had her shuriken gone then!?)

Gaara watched in amusement as his girlfriend checked her pockets. The weapons that she had been trying to show him were... not exactly weapons. Her organisation skills had lasted as far as putting two of the weapons in an order, but when the windmill shuriken had been checked...

The ramen that fell out instead had been both a blessing and a curse to her (she had moaned about those shuriken, and then promptly ate the ramen).

He chuckled at her, making her stop what she was doing and scrunch her nose at him.

**"Nani?" **Naruto asked, confused at why she was being laughed at.

**"Don't worry koi. You just look..." **Gaara trailed off, not sure how to conclude his sentence.

**"Amazing? Beautiful? Stunning? Endearing? Gorgeous? Enthr- mmph!" **

Gaara leant forward and stopped her talking.

**"All of the above,"**

A _very_ happy Naruto grinned and pressed her lips against his.

* * *

><p>Of course, now that the two were having... their alone time... Kyuubi checked her clock.<p>

After the discovery of that jutsu by Naruto, the kitsune had been helping her practice bringing things in and out of her mind, and when the clock had appeared, she insisted on keeping it. Her container had just rolled her eyes, used to this kind of attitude, and carried on with her training.

It was very useful, especially when Kyuubi knew that it was 12 o clock. Midnight.

It was the only time of the day that the ANBU checked in on her, thinking that she'd be asleep, so Naruto had better get out there before anyone came along and realised that something was wrong.

**"Kit! Time to go, now!"** Kyuubi yelled hurriedly.

Naruto quickly turned to face the red head and kissed him.

**"Thanks for meeting me! These bijuu can be really helpful sometimes, huh?"** he absent-mindedly brushed a curl of hair behind her ear.

**"I will meet you again tomorrow?"** Gaara asked questioningly.

She sighed.

**"I hope so, because Kyuu-chan and I are going to attempt to contact all the other jinchuriki and meet up without anyone else knowing. I could really use your help?" **Naruto ended hopefully.

**"You may rely on me,"** Gaara promised.

Smiling at the other, they turned away and walked off; Gaara to the black that would lead him back to his own body, and Naruto to Kyuubi who sent her to sleep. Naruto drifted off happy as she re-entered her body, lifted by an ANBU (hopefully tori, they were nice) onto her own bed.

Kyuubi smiled, both in relief (Naruto wasn't in her mindscape, so the ANBU didn't think she was in a coma) and in happiness at seeing Naruto finding herself another friend, or even more-than-friend.

That night, everything was peaceful.

* * *

><p><strong>'Especially compared to the next morning' <strong>Kyuubi sweatdropped at team 7 from her place in Naruto's mind.

They were, as Naruto was laughing her head off about, on the classic genin mission; find Tora the cat. Tora was a 'devil in disguise', or otherwise known as the Daimyo's wife (Madame Shijimi)'s cat. She was small and had short brown fur. Her eyes were dark, and her recognisable feature was the red ribbon that she wore on her left ear.

In other words, a nightmare.

Only the most elite of the elite, aka ANBU, knew the secret. Tora the cat didn't exist. Well, not anymore- she had died quite a few years back- but Madame Shijimi had given Konoha permission to duplicate her and the cat for D ranks and also another very special test...

The ANBU initiation.

Naruto was laughing because her unsuspecting team was really chasing the newest recruit, Frog-san, who was currently scared out of his wits at having to do 12 tests of this kind before he was allowed to participate in any other missions.

Sakura and Sasuke were just ignoring her, and hoping that the admittedly quite creepy laughter would stop soon, and preferably before they went deaf, but Kakashi had just laughed with her.

Naruto was so caught up in the mirth of the mission, she completely missed Kakashi's appraising stare.

**'Does he know?'** Kakashi thought warily. **'How? Did someone tell him? Is there something else going on I should be wary of?' **

(A/N Kakashi was in ANBU so he knows- and probably had to do it! I wish this happened in the anime ;-))

In truth, the jounin was puzzled and cautious about the blonde. He seemed like an idiot, was loud, irritating and made a fool of himself but there had been a couple of quiet moments when Kakashi had caught him looking thoughtful, and with eyes weirdly glazed over as if he wasn't quite there.

It was like Naruto lived his life half in a day dream, only around part of the time, and the other part just watching himself.

The man knew he had to watch the third member of their team carefully.

But first they had an initiate to tortu- catch. Yes, that was right, catch. They had an initiate to _catch._

* * *

><p>AN Who knew that editing 16 chapters at the same time could be so tiring?!


	9. Let's make nine demons friends!

Chapter nine- Have fun with the demons

Naruto panted heavily, face covered in scratches as she finished her laughing fit. It was in some part due to the running they were doing, and Naruto's mask, and in other parts due to the struggling cat she held in her arms.

It was surprisingly fun to torture him, Naruto mused happily.

She poked the 'cat's' stomach again, grinning in pleasure when it squirmed and tried to escape. Sakura looked spent and couldn't be bothered at that very moment to tell Naruto to stop doing that to the poor cat.

Or, as was also the case, felt that the stupid neko deserved it after making them chase it around for the better part of the afternoon.

Sasuke evidently felt the same, judging by the murderous glares that the cat was receiving on a regular basis.

Kakashi was chuckling once more at his funny team, and at the secret ANBU who was sending him 'help me' glares that he was very happily ignoring.

Why would he stop his most puzzling minion from poking them to death?

At least it was better than painting fences. Naruto had declared war on them, and so was now failing all of those D rank missions by swapping brown paint for neon pink, and had made his teammates work extra hard to both paint them brown _and _restrain him lest he unleash the pink paint again.

Needless to say, it had been an interesting day.

* * *

><p>Flopping back onto soft covers, Naruto released the <em>gouzen otokonoko<em> and put her house genjutsu into place.

It was finally time to contact the other bijuu. Naruto had thought of this only a week ago, but she was extremely excited about the chance to meet them.

Focussing intently, Naruto slid into her mindscape and pulsed her youkai. It mixed with Kyuubi's and together they emitted great waves of the youkai. No one in Konoha could relate it back to her (how would the baka know how to perform something like this?) but Gaara would definitely notice and join in.

Naruto was just hoping that so would some of the other bijuu.

It wasn't long (2 minutes at most) until Gaara combined his chakra and entered her mindscape. Smiling sincerely, he walked over to her and gracefully sat down next to her. Holding her hand the red head joined in with the calling for the others, whilst his bijuu, Shukaku, stomped in and joined Kyuubi.

It had taken a bit of persuading but he had agreed to join them. Had they not met him and Gaara all those years before though, it might have been a different story. Naruto and Kyuubi were just glad that Gaara had kept his mind and was here now.

One by one, consciousnesses came to answer their call.

The Rokubi, Saiken, was first after Gaara to arrive. He himself was a white slug, and had six gleaming tails. Saiken was accompanied by his jinchuuriki Utakata. Utakata had slightly-shorter-than-shoulder-length black hair, and wore a blue open robe. His weapon was unexpected, bubbles, and he carried a scroll in his belt. Utakata was a missing nin from Kiri and was 23 years old.

The next to arrive was the Nibi, Matatabi, who was a blue flaming cat. He was covered in black markings and his two tails waved behind him as the flames that made up his fur flickered. His jinchuriki was a pretty young lady called Yugito who was 25 and had long blonde hair and was allied with Kumo.

The fifth Bijuu to be in Naruto's mindscape was the Hachibi, Gyuuki. Gyuuki was a peculiar mix between an octopus and an ox and had eight waving tentacles or tails (she couldn't quite tell) and for whatever reason decided to rap quite a lot. It was nothing compared to his jinchuriki though, a tall man named B who was 32 and had dark skin with blonde hair. He was the 'brother' of A, the fourth Raikage, and only ever spoke in admittedly rather bad rhyme.

They were all friendly, and said hi to the others who were already there, and when each had realised what they were trying to do, joined in and tried to contact the remaining four.

About ten minutes after Nibi's arrival the five of them were going to give up when suddenly the Sanbi, Isobu, faded into sight. He was a giant turtle, and had one red eye.

When Isobu had arrived, everyone looked for his jinchuuriki, welcoming the chance of having another helper, but none came. The jinchuuriki of Isobu was dead.

With this depressing news silence fell as they all put the last of their effort into summoning Yonbi, Nanabi and Gobi.

The three finally arrived, each with their respective jinchuuriki around a half of an hour after Naruto had started the youkai pulses.

Yonbi was called Son Goku and was an ape with four red tails fanned out behind him. Roshi, his jinchuriki, stood firmly in front of him. Roshi was the eldest of all of the humans, and had long red hair tied in a bun on top of his head. He had a beard and moustache, and a piece of armour ran across the bridge of his nose.

Gobi was next and was a curious animal that seemed to be a horse with five tails and a dolphins head called Kokuo. Go figure. He was accompanied by an extremely tall man called Han, who was unfriendly and a ninja from Iwa. Han had light brown eyes, but wore a large hat with armour covering the bottom half of his face so none of those assembled there knew what he really looked like.

Last, but not least, was the Nanabi, Chomei. He was a giant beetle who had armour on, and his seven tails waved happily from behind him. His jinchuuriki was a girl called Fu, who Naruto immediately took a liking to, who had short green hair and orange eyes.

They had finally all arrived.

* * *

><p>The bijuu looked towards the jinchuuriki warily, some having arrived there by the will of the containers and not willingly, others out of curiosity. They saw as the two jinchuriki in the middle stood up, and turned towards each other with a kiss.<p>

Well. That was unexpected. Two of the jinchuuriki, who were from different villages as their hitai-aite proclaimed, were in a relationship.

One of them was quite tall, although not up to the same height as Han, and had bright red hair. He had no eyebrows but his vivid green eyes were outlined in black as though he hadn't slept in a long time, and a tattoo over his left eye was of the kanji _love. _The boy was from Suna.

The other jinchuriki was one of the youngest and had long blonde hair trailing down her back in a ponytail. She had startling blue eyes and whiskered cheeks, which made most of the party more cautious as they recognised the girl as the container of Kyuubi.

The two of them joined hands and walked into the line of humans, creating a circle for them to talk in.

**"Please could everyone introduce themselves? We called everyone here to talk. I am Uzumaki Naruto, shinobi of Konoha and jinchuuriki of Kurama,"**

She sent an apologetic look at Kyuubi as she fell silent, and for a moment everyone else was also silent as they took in the speaker, the Kyuubi jinchuriki. The boy next to her spoke up

**"I am Sabaku no Gaara, shinobi of Suna and container of Shukaku,"**

**"Nii Yugito, shinobi of Kumo and container of Matatabi,"**

**"Roshi, shinobi of Iwa and container of Son Goku,"**

**"Han, shinobi of Iwa and container of Kokuo,"**

**"Utakata, missing nin of Kiri and container of Saiken,"**

**"Fu, shinobi of Taki and container of Chomei,"**

**"Killer B, shinobi of Kumo and container of Gyuuki, yeah,"**

Naruto took a deep breath and looked at Gaara, who looked reassuringly back at her.

**"Ok, so I called everyone here so that we could get to know each other, so we can each have another friend and if we are ever called to fight each other as a weapon, we can make our own choices. Plus, I was just curious about everyone,"** she said, rubbing the back of her neck nervously.

Silence. Three, two, one... Fu grinned happily and ran across to Naruto.

**"Hi! I'm Fu!"** she said exuberantly. Fu held out her arms and hugged the blonde, who stood there in shock for a second, then laughed and hugged back. They pulled away and grinned at each other.

**"I'm Naruto!"**

Gaara, Chomei and Kyuubi rolled their eyes at the two of them and slowly, the jinchuuriki started to get acquainted with each other.

Look at me! An update in on time! Wow, been a while since that happened!

I hope u like!

Also, am extremely happy cos a Wrinkle in Time was updated (11 months hiatus! Unacceptable) and so people should go read it- it is amazing! 11 chapters, but 100k+ - I don't know how she does it :-(

But she is amazing at it!


	10. This might be a problem

Chapter ten- This might be a problem...

**"Bye Fu-chan!" **Naruto called out happily. Her new best friend turned towards her and waved happily.

**"See you soon Naru-chan!"** she shouted back with a grin as her figure disappeared slowly into the black at the edge of her mindscape that was other minds could link up to.

Grinning happily, the blonde turned to the only one left there (excluding Bijuu) and hugged him tight.

**"Did that go as well as you wanted it to go, Naruto-chan?"** She beamed up at him.

**"It went loads better! I'm so glad that we did this Gaara-kun,"** Naruto replied excitedly.

**"I am glad as well. However, it is morning and we both have places to go," The** blonde groaned. She didn't want to go anywhere; she was happy here thank you very much!

**"Five more minutes Gaara-kun?" **she asked, batting her eyelashes in an attempt to get the redhead to agree.

**"Only five more," **he agreed, albeit a bit reluctantly. All that he could hope was that his devil sister Temari, or his annoying brother Kankuro didn't discover his body in the meantime.

* * *

><p>In Suna, the sun was shining bright and early. Temari yawned widely as she walked into her bathroom, placing on her customary outfit and grabbing her fan.<p>

Suddenly she sneezed.

Looking around suspiciously, she frowned. Someone was talking about her... however; fortunately for Gaara she was too busy to really ponder the matter.

Pounding heavy handed on the brown door of Kankuro's room, the blonde yelled

"Kankuro! Baka, it's eight o'clock and you have training at half past! If you ever get your lazy bum up, I'm gonna be in the kitchen eating all of the pancakes!"

At this, a stumble and a quiet curse could be heard from inside the room, and then a loud bash and a yelp as the occupant of the room tried to get ready before his elder sister ate all of the pancakes.

Snickering, Temari walked further down the corridor, followed shortly after by a flushed boy in a black cat suit. He raced after her and caught up as she lifted a hand to knock on the last door in the hallway, a blood red door. She carefully knocked on it and called out

"Gaara? It's me, Temari. If you would like then we have put breakfast on the table,"

Tensing in apprehension for what came next, they waited for the sand to swirl under the door and wrap around a leg in confirmation.

They waited.

And waited.

And waited a bit more.

After receiving no reply for several minutes, the Sabaku siblings looked at each other and Kankuro cautiously stepped forwards. A hand was raised slowly, and a gentle nudge opened the door wide.

Prepared for their younger brother's rage when they found them in the room, Temari and Kankuro stepped forwards. There, by the window, lay their brother. Asleep.

They immediately panicked, considering that if he slept then the Ichibi would be released, but when nothing happened, Temari stepped forwards once again and stroked Gaara's cheek lovingly. It had been ages since she had seen him like this; vulnerable and innocent.

A sudden smile crept up his stone features and crinkled the edge of his mouth.

They gaped at it.

Why the hell was _Gaara_ of all people smiling? And for that matter, why was he sleeping!?

A mumbled string of words came from his mouth, and Temari leant towards him to hear what he was saying.

"Are we... the others soon? ...see you... then... -chan," he whispered softly.

She gasped and stepped back, motioning furiously for her younger sibling to do the same as Gaara woke up.

Once they were outside the room, the door was shut tightly and Temari repeated to Kankuro what she had heard.

"Gaara asked someone if, if they were doing something with others soon, and then said that he would see them..."

"That's not so bad is it?" Kankuro replied curiously.

"No but he also said 'chan'," Temari answered nervously.

(For any unaccustomed to the ways of Japanese, 'chan' is a suffix used after a name that refers to a close female friend or sister)

"Ok... Maybe we should watch out for the next couple of days," he said, backtracking quickly to the kitchen. He liked the kitchen. Currently there were no freaky and/or scary siblings hiding in it.

With a roll of her eyes, Temari strode off towards the kitchen as well, hoping for some pancakes.

Well, there went Kankuro's safe haven.

* * *

><p>Naruto opened her eyes, blinking as she yawned.<p>

Damnit! She had got so caught up in chatting to the jinchuuriki (mainly her green haired friend Fu) that she had forgotten to recharge with actual sleep. Normally she survived on the three hours gained between 6 and 9, when there was enough time to get ready before Kakashi arrived.

Although it was currently nine thirty.

* * *

><p>Or not, as it turned out. It was eleven thirty (at least by the time she made an appearance at training ground 7 it was) and she had a very irritated team waiting for her.<p>

"NARUTO!" Her kind and loving fellow kunoichi yelled and bumped Naruto fiercely on the head.

"Humph. Dobe," The reaction of her uncaring second teammate.

"Naruto, Naruto, must we go back to basics here? I'm sure the first year academy would love to have you with them learning how to read a clock as it appears that you have forgotten how it is done,"

"Hai sensei," she replied, lost in a bubble of her own thoughts.

The bubble remained there for the entire day, giving the others the impression that she wasn't all there today. Quite rightly too. Half of her mind had gone dreaming to a place with Gaara, and the occasional appearance of Fu.

Happy days.

Kakashi noticed that the daydream was apparent throughout the entire day, but didn't know what to do about it.

Poking didn't work.

Ignoring it didn't work.

Bashing him on the head (courtesy of Sakura) didn't work.

So Kakashi tried the last option that he could think of.

* * *

><p>The Sandaime Hokage was having a peaceful day, reading a little oran- no, doing all of his paper book (whilst his secretary ignored the giggles that drifted out from underneath the door) when <em>crash<em> Naruto came flying in. Literally.

"Naruto! Why is there a hole in my roof?"

The culprit scratched his head and replied

"I don't know. I guess Kaka-sensei felt like it," Oh. So Kakashi was responsible for this? But what was he doing there?

A sharp rap of knuckles on the door prompted him to call out

"Come in!" and in entered the silver haired jounin himself.

"Ah, Kakashi. I hope that you can explain why Naruto came falling through my ceiling,"

_Uh oh_ he thought.

"Well you see, I was crossing the road when I saw a bright orange thing chasing Tora the cat, and so I stepped in to save the poor little cat and all of a sudden the orange thing disappeared,"

Sandaime sighed, then laughed a bit at the excuse. However, peering closer at the man he saw the ANBU hand signs that meant Kakashi needed to talk in private. Raising an eyebrow curiously, he turned to the 'bright orange thing' (thing! Thing indeed Naruto thought crossly) and said

"Well, it's okay. It'll be your mission tomorrow to clean it up. Go on, my boy, I'll sort out the rest of this mission with your sensei,"

"Hai, hai jiji! I'm gone, see?" and true to her word, Naruto ran off, out of sight of the men.

* * *

><p>Naruto cautiously flew back to the room and landed on the door frame. Silly people, underestimating her. Just because she acted like an idiot!<p>

**"Kit..."**

**"Fine,"** ok, that might be a pretty good reason. But still!

The second she had been ordered out of the room so that the men could talk (of course she had noticed the hand signs- she had grown up with ANBU all around her after all) Kyuubi had suggested that she henge into a fly and come back again.

Naruto had done just so, since it was better than her 'walk on the ceiling in an invisible genjutsu' that any chuunin could notice.

Enhancing her ears with chakra, the bluebottle called Naruto listened.

"-ruto, Hokage-sama," came the deep voice of Kakashi.

"Go on then. Is there something I need to know about him?" replied the Hokage. Naruto grinned a little- people of Konoha were really bad at... how to put it...

"Seeing underneath the underneath, as that 'sensei' of yours would say," Kyuubi answered. Naruto could just _hear _the grin in her voice as she smiled back and continued listening.

"He appears to live life in a day dream for part of the time. It's weird, but it's a bit like Naruto's listening but not really paying attention to the world around him. He was also laughing a lot when the mission about Tora the cat came up yesterday, so it is plausible that he knows,"

"Hmm. In this case, I will have to keep an eye on him. Thank you Kakashi,"

"No problem, Hokage-sama," Naruto heard the squeak of rubber as Kakashi turned towards the door.

"Oh and also... when you touch him it feels a bit off, like... I'm not sure how to explain it. I can feel him, but it somehow seems a bit artificial. Don't take my word on this one though- maybe speak to a few more people about him. I honestly don't know if anyone knows him well enough to know any of these secrets though,"

"I wonder..." were the last words Naruto caught with her ears before being caught in a strong hand. She blinked huge fly eyes at her captor.

It was Kakashi. Ah. This might be a problem.


	11. Four hours? That's good enough

Chapter 11- Four hours? That's good enough

"Oh and also... when you touch him it feels a bit off, like... I'm not sure how to explain it. I can feel him, but it somehow seems a bit artificial. Don't take my word on this one though- maybe speak to a few more people about him,"

Suddenly, a small buzzing noise came to Kakashi's attention. What was it? A small animal- perhaps a fly?

No, it was too convenient. They hadn't been cautious, there were no silencing seals up, so the odds were that there was a spy listening in!

But where were they? It was probably one of the Aburame (but they were loyal) so a Kamizuru member then?

The noise occurred again and Kakashi started walking to the door as he finished his sentence.

"I honestly don't know if anyone knows him well enough to know any of these secrets though,"

The Sandaime looked thoughtful as the jounin opened the door.

"I wonder," he started as Kakashi reached out above the frame and caught what appeared to be a fly in between his index finger and his thumb.

The younger man turned back towards his Hokage with the intruder in his hand.

"So then. What clan is it?" the Sandaime inquired. Old he might be, but his hearing was still very much with him.

"Well, it seems to be a fly, probably from the Aburame, but I think that it is more likely that a Kamizuru clan member has henged their bee into a fly to shift the suspicion away from them,"

"Hai, I agree with you Kakashi. So, would you like to do the honours?"

The prodigy smiled as he held up a seal and called out

"Kai!"

A cloud of smoke surrounded the insect and when it was gone, in place of it lay...

* * *

><p>Naruto panicked as her fly self was caught by Kakashi-san and brought into the room.<p>

She was shown to the Sandaime, who was currently looking nothing like the kind gentleman he usually faked being around her, and as the younger man rose up his hand seal, she prepared a quick plan.

"Kai!" rang out across the room, and she quickly enlarged the smoke cloud. Her true body appeared for a miniscule part of a second, before henging in the smoke into the form of a bee.

Hey, if they wanted to suspect the Kamizuru clan, then it was their choice! She could just offer them a good reason.

The bee Naruto was lifted into the air as she buzzed her wings three times. It was a signal to one of her kage bunshin to come and save her.

Naruto knew quite well that any attempt to escape would end in the bee being killed so that no information could get away, hence the need of an assistant Kage Bunshin.

Calmer now, the yellow and black striped girl focussed her ears on the conversation.

"Do you think that they heard anything vital?" That was Kakashi.

"No, we'd have heard the buzzing sooner. I just wonder who would send an informant right now,"

"It must be Iwa; who else would try such a technique,"

Her Bunshin had arrived.

Naruto rose slowly, knowing that Kakashi had temporarily forgotten about her in his palm. Using it to her advantage, she zoomed away faster than he could react and swapped positions with the newly created _Chi Bunshin_. And not a moment too soon. In that instant after she had kawarimed, a razor sharp kunai had flown neatly through the air and pierced the side of the bee.

Naruto felt sorry for the poor bunshin, but was glad that it wasn't her.

* * *

><p>With a sigh, Naruto fell back into her comfortable bed. It was nearing midnight, and after her ANBU gaurds had visited she was going to do her first mission as the Kami no Hoshi.<p>

She had checked out an unaccepted mission scroll earlier, and what she had found had made her furious. How dare Konoha ignore it?

So now the blonde was just going to take it without the knowledge of Sandaime.

What he didn't know couldn't kill him.

It should be a fairly simple mission; travel to the village, locate the target, assassinate him and come back again. But when did anything ever work out simply for Naruto?

* * *

><p>A minute past midnight saw Naruto dressed and ready to go, with seal paper and ink hidden in a storage sealed pocket, and in yet another pocket ready-made explosive seals, invisibility seals, transportation seals (well, they were experimental seals that she had been working on and was hoping that she could get to transport herself, like the Hiraishin of the Yondaime, her idol) and paralysis seals.<p>

Her bow was ready and packed, along with her arrows.

She was planning to go to Takumi, in the Land of Rivers, where there was a child murderer on the loose. Naruto was still fuming at Konoha, the so-called protectors that didn't bother to help with something urgent like this, so it was only logical to complete the task herself. Easy, right?

However, fate wasn't smiling on the young jinchuriki that night.

It had been easy enough to reach Takumi Village, using her stamina to get herself there in record time, enabling her to perform the job then escape ho- no, escape to Konoha (not her home anymore). Unfortunately there appeared to be guards around the back entrance of the building that she was trying to get into.

Fortunately, they were only thugs instead of hired shinobi. Walking out confidently, Naruto faced them and pulled out a kunai, disguised as a simple hammer.

Pretending to be weak and feeble, she swung it towards them as if she didn't know what to do. As expected, one caught it and the other punched her in an attempt to knock her out. However, as she flew back through the air acting unconscious, Naruto flickered a genjutsu around her.

It was of a young girl of about 6, the victim's preferred age, and the thugs knew that their boss would like to take her as well. With a grunt, one picked her up and headed inside with the other one staying outside on watch, like they were both meant to be doing.

They were actually doing her a favour this way- she needed to get to their leader anyway. This way it was faster.

Her eyes, hidden behind long hair, moved around furiously whilst they catalogued everything that she might need to know. Two floors, four windows, three doors, three sets of curtains drawn, one open, a picture that could have something behind it, a couple of guards at the top of the stairs to the flight above and five brightly light lights.

He obviously didn't want anyone to sneak up on him.

However, as she turned into the room that she needed to be in, and her target was in sight, Naruto kicked the man holding her in the head and used the momentum to kick the other one out as well.

In a single smooth movement, still henged as a child, she bent and slit the throats of the two of them. No use keeping allies of a heartless murderer alive.

The man cowered before her unflinching gaze, blue orbs as hard as flint as they bore down on the cruel taker of children's lives.

"P- Please," he whispered pleadingly.

"Don't- Don't hurt me. I'm i-innocent," Naruto threw back her six year old head and laughed coldly.

"No you are not. You have the blood of children on your hands, and I have come to exact my revenge," she told the man in a soft child's voice.

Oh yes. He was going to suffer, and suffer well for his crimes. Checking her watch carefully, she calculated how long she had to do this. It was 2 in the morning, so it would take 2 hours to get home, and she was meeting her team at 9.

So if Naruto wanted to arrive home at 8, then she had until 6 o'clock to kill him.

Well well. She could do a lot with four hours.


	12. Can I fly?

Chapter 12- Can I fly?

Exactly four hours later, Naruto emerged from the brightly lit house with a smirk and a lot of blood on her previously black clothing. Most of it was unnoticeable, but quite a lot of the red liquid that was still fresh and gleaming showed up bright against the dark metal.

Well damn. She was going to have to do some serious washing when she got home.

**"Oh well. It was worth it," **she thought, chuckling slightly in sadistic glee at the thought of what she had done in the past few hours.

**"You did well, kit. I don't think I could have done better," **Kyuubi commented, smirking proudly at Naruto.

**"Thanks, Kyuu-chan. I learnt from the best,"** the smile returned to Naruto's face and she turned away from the house.

Leaning forwards, she sprinted off again at her maximum speed. Naruto needed to arrive home and clean this, or she would be spotted and there would be trouble.

* * *

><p>In Suna later that day, news reached Gaara's ears of a child killer who was murdered in the neighbouring country, Kawa no Kuni. It had been said that it was a six year old girl, dressed in black shinobi uniform, with blonde bunches that had killed him.<p>

The killer had left a curious calling mark carved into the victim's forehead; a red star drawn in blood with a halo above it.

However, no-one really knew who had killed the man.

* * *

><p>Naruto grimaced as she neared Konoha. It was coming up to 8 o'clock, like planned, and so the streets were full of people and ninja. Normally this wouldn't be a problem for her, but since she was now all bloody, the higher level shinobi would be able to tell that she was there by her scent.<p>

So the blood needed to be disguised, now.

Stopping in a tall tree about 5 minutes away from the gate, she pulled out her emergency kit bag from her storage seal, and pulled out the soap.

Using her elemental chakra control practice, Naruto pulled the water from the air around her inwards towards all of her clothing. It was drenched as she easily controlled her second element to clean herself, and then she scrubbed at all of the bloodstains with the bar of soap.

It came away pink, and the bubbles covered her outfit almost from head to toe as Naruto dragged the same amount of water into her clothes again. In, out, in out, in, out...

She mindlessly controlled the water until it stopped coming out tinged with pink or red.

Water fell to the ground as she released her hold on it, using her invisibility genjutsu (A/N is it my imagination, or does Kurenai have one of these in canon?) to cover herself.

With a wide grin she suddenly realised something.

Her futon practices involved levitating items from around her. So in theory, Naruto was able to fly.

And what better time to test it than now? If the blonde fell, and was seen by someone, well her clothes were henged on top of this outfit anyway so Naruto could pretend to have been doing some sort of prank that had gone wrong and ended up with her being catapulted over Konoha.

It had happened before.

* * *

><p>Half an hour later Naruto wobbled slowly out of the tree. She had tried to control her flight, but wasn't very good at it, and was not very happy with the results.<p>

She had just crashed to the floor every try.

Needless to say, Naruto was just going to walk back and work out the whole flying business later, probably with Kage Bunshin, after she had met up with her team and done the missions for that day...

Wait, team?

Damn! Why had she decided to work on this now?

**"Hell if I know kit," **Kyuubi smirked at the expression on Naruto's face as she remembered the time.

Naruto rolled her eyes at the demon kitsune as she thought out her action plan.

Her team was meeting at 9, and however much she disliked the idiots that made up her team, Naruto knew that she needed to be there on time in order to avoid any more suspicion from Kakashi.

It was bad enough that Naruto had been heard as a fly (needed to remember that for future henges) let alone if she was caught with the scent of blood on her clothes.

Checking her watch hurriedly, she realised that she only had 10 minutes until Kakashi-san would arrive. Oh dear.

Looking around quickly, Naruto pulled her fingers together in a shunshin seal, with her two fingers pointing up and the rest in a fist.

A swirl of wind surrounded her, and when it fell away she was gone.

* * *

><p>The Sandaime pulled out his crystal orb, and said to it very clearly<p>

"Uzumaki Naruto,"

Inside it a cloudy mist swirled, and when it whirled itself away, an image of Uzumaki Naruto, the loud-mouthed genin that Sarutobi had grown to like, was shown in vivid colours in the sphere.

He chuckled as he saw Naruto in a tree, presumably on a training field, trying to do something. The Hokage leaned forwards curiously as he saw Naruto close his eyes, focus... and fall of the tree.

Sarutobi laughed as he spied Naruto's expression, halfway between pouting and frowning, as Naruto proceeded to walk back up the tree using his feet (when had Naruto learnt to do that? He needed to keep a close eye on him) and... Fall off again.

What was the poor boy trying to do anyway?

It was about 5 more minutes before Naruto stopped at the bottom of the tree and attempted to walk away. He wobbled quite a lot, probably tired of crashing so many times, and his expression grew blank. Chuckling quietly to himself, the Sandaime watched as horror crept across the young boy's face.

He checked his watch.

Oh, that was it. He was late for something, maybe a meeting with someone? Or was it... oh, it was his team. It was almost 9 o'clock, and on a Kakashi schedule that was the perfect time to show up after arranging to meet at 6.

Sarutobi watched with his attention split between the amusing figure in the ball and his damned paperwork (how had Minato ever done this?) and so almost missed the hand seal that the boy pulled up, and after looking around him, vanished in a swirl of wind.

Shunshin.

Stunned, the Hokage sat back in his chair. Who had been teaching him? The reports from Kakashi showed that Naruto had no great skill in shinobi training, and that his jounin sensei himself had taught Naruto nothing more than some simple taijutsu pointers. It was Uchiha Sasuke that Kakashi had mainly been teaching... (A/N I'd like to point out that I KNEW IT! Kakashi was teaching Sasuke extra... wait a sec, I just wrote this. *Face faults*)

But again, Kakashi had been suspicious of something about Naruto, something about him seeming artificial?

Well, he could just ask team 7 to come to his office and check out what Kakashi had reported now.

A messenger bird was picked from the perches in the adjoining room, and Sandaime scribbled a quick note to Kakashi.

It was firmly tied to the leg of the hawk and sent to find Team 7.

Finally there would be some answers to the enigma that was Konoha's number one most surprising ninja... or would there?

A/N Sorry it's so short! It's a filler, because it's Christmas and I thought I could get some good updates in and then what happens? Writer's block.

I'll try and make an extra long one tomorrow- Merry Christmas eve!


	13. The smell of blood

Chapter 13- The smell of blood

Naruto arrived in her apartment with five minutes left until the meeting. She flew around with reckless speed as weapons were cleaned, clothes were deemed satisfactory, yet more upkeep of weapons as they were sharpened so that it wasn't suspicious...

All in all, it was a big task done in a tiny space of time.

Still, Naruto was at the meeting spot by 9:01, conveniently forgetting how half of the team had been there since 6.

Her forgetfulness earned her another scowl from the boy (which she promptly ignored; wasn't like it was anything special) and a bash on the head from Sakura (really, it was getting very annoying now, and not to mention how much it hurt her feelings. To think that Naruto had thought maybe her team would accept her for who she was).

It also _had_ to be the one day that the jounin of the team decided to arrive an entire half hour early. Really, what was up with him and appearing at random, irritating times? Why couldn't he just say 9 and be done with it?

"Konichiwa, Naruto. I'm glad that you finally decided to grace our humble team with your presence," Kakashi said to the girl sarcastically.

She flushed and yelled angrily

"The stupid alarm clock was broken! How was I supposed to know that? It was working when I went to bed!"

Sakura growled at the noise again, but quickly calmed down again as Kakashi waved his hand nonchalantly.

"Maa, maa Sakura. Calm down. However late this baka wants to arrive, Hokage-sama has requested our presence today," the silver haired man informed his team.

With one last threatening wave of her fist, the pink kunoichi followed after her retreating sensei, who had his nose buried yet again in the perverted orange Icha-Icha book.

With a snicker at ero-sennin's book, Naruto followed, strolling along with her hands behind her head as though she was relaxed and happy, although she was still on edge from her self-assigned mission throughout that day.

She would have probably fallen asleep as well, if it weren't for Kyuu-chan inside of her supplying the girl with her special fiery chakra, which had been separated from the youkai and the ki, which meant that the blonde could easily control it to keep her awake.

**"Thanks Kyuu-chan,"** she silently told her tenant as she realised how she was still awake.

**"It's no problem kit. We don't want anyone to become suspicious of us if we are tired too often... plus the next time you stay up all night with Gaara-kun I promise that I will not keep you awake,"** the nine tailed kitsune replied with a bit of a smirk.

Naruto sweatdropped at the turn in topic.

**"Umm... thanks for the warning,"** she grimaced back, almost walking into the Uchiha's back.

When had he got there? Naruto had set off before him...

"Teme! Why did you stop?" she accused the boy.

"Tch. Are you really so stupid that you can't notice the Hokage tower in front of your nose?" he replied snobbishly, with a hint of a disbelieving tone in his voice.

"Hey! Take that back!" She cried out, lashing out with a weak fist and hitting his blue clad back.

He just 'hnned' back at her as Kakashi-san was suddenly in front of them, holding them apart from each other.

"Now now, you two. Control yourselves please as we are meeting with Sandaime," he ordered the genin with a threatening smile.

With a scowl on her face, Naruto turned her head away from her 'rival' and examined the walls of the familiar surroundings.

When they arrived at the door of Hokage-jiji's office, Naruto had become her 'normal, irritating' self again. The door swung open and she boisterously shouted

"Hi Hokage-jiji," with a beaming grin. She ran forwards and hugged the old man behind the desk.

Sarutobi chuckled at the amusing sight of the orange shinobi as he calmly said back

"Good morning to you too, Naruto,"

However, inside he too had registered how artificial Naruto's touch somehow felt.

"Sandaime-sama," Kakashi bowed low. In return, he nodded cheerfully at the younger man and told the three genin

"I know that I called your team here, and I will explain to you the reason for this in a minute. But please could the three of you wait in the corridor for a moment? I promise we won't take long; I just want to ask your sensei something,"

The two girls and boy walked quietly out the room, albeit with Sakura latching onto Sasuke's arm.

As soon as they were gone, Kakashi activated the silencing seals that were positioned at strategic points around the room, wary of what had happened in the last meeting.

"Yes, thank you Kakashi," the Hokage smiled.

* * *

><p>Outside Naruto cursed her luck. In front of her two teammates she couldn't disable the seals, and any chakra that she used would be detected by either one of the three Anbu hiding in the room, Sandaime or Kakashi.<p>

In short, there was to be no eavesdropping today.

* * *

><p>Considering the time that they had, Sarutobi spoke straight to the point.<p>

"Today I saw Naruto performing feats that should not be in his knowledge currently; tree walking and shunshin," he said, no beating about the bush.

"I... I wasn't aware that he knew these things either, Hokage-sama," Kakashi replied with a bit of shock colouring his tone.

"I wasn't aware that he could do anything out of the normal before today, but I am intending to keep him under a closer watch. I would like to request that you watch his behaviour around you and see if we can figure out how this has come to be," he ordered politely.

"As you wish, Hokage-sama," the man answered sincerely.

"Good. Now, if you would please call your team in?" he asked.

Taking the silencing seals down, the masked jounin poked his head through the door and called out for the three of them to re-enter.

"Ok. The reason that you have been called here today is so that I can have the honour of personally assigning you this mission. You are to train as a team after it had been completed," Sandaime told Team seven.

"Alright, jiji! So then, what's the mission?" Naruto shouted pumping the air as the Hokage himself decided to give this team the mission.

"I need this team to do me the very important mission of..." Kakashi chuckled at the expectant faces as Sarutobi left his sentence unfinished.

"...catching Tora the cat,"

As the old man finished, the anticipatory silence that had filled the room was suddenly broken by the sound of three thuds, as three faces fell to the floor in synchrony.

Scratch that. It was nothing more than her Hokage being a sadistic bastard that had made them come here.

* * *

><p>Two hours and many scratches later, Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura collapsed side by side onto the ground by the training stump.<p>

"At least-it's-over," Naruto told his teammates between pants.

They couldn't help but agree, although it seemed that Kakashi didn't share the same thoughts.

"Come on, my cute little minions! It's time for training!" he said brightly.

"Hell no," Sakura whimpered as she and Sasuke were forced to stand up and move a bit further away in order to spar, whilst Naruto was forced upright to face the second sadistic bastard of the day in combat.

* * *

><p>Kakashi narrowed his eyes at the exhausted Naruto in front of him. This genin held secrets, and he would be damned if he wouldn't figure them out.<p>

Allowing just enough time to allow his young and weary opponent to raise a kunai in defence, he shot off towards Naruto.

Metal struck metal as he aimed at the boy's chest, where the kunai was positioned so that he wouldn't be hurt, and then Kakashi was gone again.

The same pattern continued turn after turn after turn. In fact, who knows how long it might have continued if it hadn't been for the fact that Kakashi's sharp nose suddenly smelt blood on the boy. Dry blood, not fresh blood drawn in their spar.

When he next came in to attack Naruto, he stopped as the other's kunai was held in place by his own and held up the free hand in a symbol that the jinchuriki knew well.

Kai.

"Naruto, I can sense that you are hidden behind a genjutsu. I can also smell dry blood on you. Why is this?" Kakashi questioned.

Although Naruto remained calm on the outside, she was panicking inwardly. Kyuubi rolled her eyes at the mess her kit was in, and stepped forwards.

**"Kit, I suggest that when he releases the genjutsu, you make yourself look like a boy but put marks on your forearms, as if you have been... cutting. It is crude, but I think that it will work,"**

**"Ok, I'll try it," **came the answer to the suggestion.

"Kakashi-sensei, I-" she said out loud, in a voice that slightly trembled.

"No, don't worry. I'll release it and find out myself," he replied without taking his eyes off her.

"Kai," he whispered softly.

All of a sudden, Naruto began to change. His hair grew out a little tiny bit, he became taller by a centimetre or so, his clothes flickered to reveal a black t-shirt and trousers, but his arms changed the most, in Kakashi's opinion.

They became lined in hundreds of scars, but one was wrapped in bandages that had spots of dried blood soaked in.

Naruto lowered her head, her bangs covering her eyes as Kakashi gaped at what he saw.

Taking a step away, Naruto wordlessly replaced the genjutsu as the kai hand seal held up by the jounin was lowered.

"Naruto..." he finally said, voice heavy with the weight of what Kakashi thought he now knew.

"It doesn't matter, sensei," she replied quietly.

As he gaped silently, she turned away and leapt off, leaving the man to his own thoughts.

(A/N I am pretty proud of this chapter, considering it was written on Boxing Day, at 1 in the morning, and is a third longer than the previous chapter! Credits go to arya304 who actually persuaded me to write this now, instead of being lazy and finishing it tomorrow like I would have done.

Merry Christmas minna!)


	14. What the hell just happened?

Chapter 14- What the hell just happened

**"Well done kit," **Kyuubi told Naruto happily. Naruto stayed silent, her long bags creating a curtain to hide behind.

"Kit?" the demon asked worriedly as the girl didn't respond.

Kyuubi walked forwards, and gently pushed the hair out of the way. She gasped as she saw Naruto crying, and threw her arms around the blonde in a tight embrace.

**"There, there, Naruto-chan. It's ok,"** she cooed to the miserable Naruto as she hugged her surrogate mother back warmly.

**"Why are you sad, my kit? You did well! That was flawless timing, and the appearance was realistic! What's the matter?" **the kitsune whispered quietly.

Her nine red tails waved slowly behind her in an attempt to calm Naruto down.

**"I- I don't want to push him away,"** Naruto finally choked out, shuddering in Kyuubi's grip.

**"If he's the best chance of a proper life that I have in Konoha, then I don't want to make it go! I want a proper life, Kyuu-chan! Where I have friends in the village, and people don't look at me like- like I'm about to kill them! Where I can be happy, and I don't have to hide my relationship with Gaara-kun! I just want a proper life, here!" **she burst out, tears falling all the while.

**"Oh kit. It's fine, he won't desert you now. If anything he'll be kinder to you and pay more attention!"**

Naruto said nothing and only hugged Kyuubi tighter.

* * *

><p>However, as the days turned to weeks and the weeks turned to months in a smooth routine, it seemed that Kyuubi was right.<p>

There had been more team practices, and now Kakashi nearly always sparred with Naruto. She started to show a bit more of her true skill in taijutsu, and although she kept on her very heavy weights, Kakashi could see the difference between before and after.

He gave her tips for taijutsu, and whilst Sasuke was the only one that he gave extra lessons to by order of the council, scrolls were exchanged at the end of each session, holding different jutsus, each more powerful than the last.

Naruto learnt more and more ninjutsu with him and slowly but surely, Kakashi had wormed his way into her heart.

Her night time missions as Kami no Hoshi continued, and whilst she only did them once or twice a week, the Kami no Hoshi became a famous ninja. Her sensei, which she was now proud to call him, had kept track of the scent of dry blood and as such, the girl had been more thorough in her washing so that he only found her with the scent every so often.

Kakashi never said anything more on the topic, but whenever they ended a spar when he could tell that she had had blood on her recently, he would hand her a new set of bandages.

Once, when Naruto had gone after a A rank missing nin, and stumbled on a trio of S rank shinobi, she had been very grateful to him as she bandaged her painful injuries up.

That day she had been slow and clumsy as she sparred, but every other day had seen a steady improve in Naruto's skill.

Until today.

It had started as usual, arriving hours behind Sasuke and Sakura and ten minutes before Kakashi-sensei did, but it had soon taken a turn from the ordinary.

Kakashi had arrived seriously, without his normal joking attitude and said

"I have signed you three up to take the chuunin exams, if you wish to. I have slips that you need to sign here with me now, but you all need to understand that these exams are a serious matter, and possibly one of life and death. Do you all understand this?"

The three of them had nodded.

"You have an hour to make your decision, and then meet me back here," Kakashi had then added lightly. After that the jounin had asked to have a word with Naruto. This led them to where they were now; standing a short distance from the others and listening (kind of) to what Kakashi had to say.

"Naruto, I need you in particular to understand this. Some of the villagers may take this as an opportunity to try and assassinate you. If you decide to do this, then you will need to be constantly on guard,"

"Don't worry sensei, I know," she replied with a sad little smile that caught Kakashi's attention. It was clear that Naruto did know, and that this had most likely happened before.

Nodding in acceptance of the blonde's words, Kakashi raised his hand.

"Well, Ja ne!" he eye smiled, and 'poofed' away. (A/N SUCH AN AWESOME WORD!)

The girl smiled, then walked back again to the group.

Sasuke watched her in jealousy.

Why did he, the dead last dobe, get all of sensei's attention?

It wasn't fair. As an Uchiha, it was his right to have power so that he could fulfil his revenge on Itachi. Naruto didn't need or deserve more power than him.

So why did he have more?

Marching up to the grinning boy in question, Sasuke glared at him.

"Dobe, what did Kakashi want to talk to you about, where we couldn't hear?" he questioned furiously. Sakura followed the dark haired boy's lead, and glared at Naruto.

"Hmm? Oh, he wanted me to remember that it wasn't just a game and that I ought to be more careful that I won't be killed," she replied distractedly.

It wasn't a lie, she thought. It just wasn't the reason why Naruto had to be more careful.

**"I'm sorry kit. You know that I would change it if I could,"** Kyuubi said sadly, not wanting to cause Naruto pain.

**"Kyuu-chan! T's ok, don't worry about it. At least I have you, Itachi-nii, ero-sennin, Gaara-kun, Fu-chan and Kakashi-sensei now,"** Naruto answered happily.

Outside, Sasuke noticed Naruto's change of mood, and growled at her happiness. It was ok for Naruto, Sasuke thought. Naruto wasn't the one who was all alone, who had had his family murdered by his very own brother, no, he was the one who had probably never experienced anything bad in his life, and who was stupid and always happy.

It was ok for him, he didn't have a reason to be sad. (A/N Lol! *Laughs at Sasuke's BIG mistake*)

Looking up at the fuming boy, Naruto smiled brightly and walked off.

Sasuke stood there.

Sakura looked back and forth quickly, not knowing where to go. She followed after Naruto as Sasuke stormed off the other way.

Naruto grinned widely as she put her signed slip back into her back pocket. She was going to do the chuunin exams!

Fu and Gaara had told her last night, on one of their weekly meetings, that the two of them were coming to Konoha for it. They had all been overjoyed (not that Gaara showed it) and the other 5 jinchuriki had watched as the youngest jinchuriki squealed and hugged everyone.

Even Han had been caught by the excited kunoichi.

The weekly jinchuriki and bijuu meetings were fun...

So engrossed was Naruto in her musings, that she didn't notice the Hokage's grandson, Konohamaru, and his two friends Moegi and Udon until she literally tripped over the rectangular box that the three had hidden in.

Coughing as their smoke bomb went off, with too much gunpowder yet again, the excitable children begged her to play ninja with them like she had promised the week before.

"Ninja? What kind of ninja plays ninja?" Sakura asked with a raised eyebrow and a smirk.

"Come on Sakura-chan," Naruto whined playfully. Konohamaru looked between the two of them and asked doubtfully.

"Naruto-niichan? Is she your," he wiggled his little finger in the air. They both looked disgusted that Konohamaru was implying that they were boyfriend and girlfriend.

"Ha!" Kyuubi laughed at Naruto hysterically from inside her mind.

"No, no, no," Naruto laughed uneasily to both the kitsune and the boy.

"Good. Because she has a really big forehead," the academy student grinned.

"You might want to run...now," Naruto warned cautiously as Sakura raised a fist and charged. Naruto followed her own advice and chased after them.

Suddenly there was a crash and the whines of Konohamaru filled the air.

"You wanna know what happens to little brats like you who crash into me?" a loud voice growled. Turning the corner, the girl yelled

"Put him down!"

"Oh yeah? What are you going to do about it?" He asked with a sneer. A stone whacked his hand, and he released the boy who fell to the floor.

Sasuke jumped down from the tree overhead as the painted boy scowled at the first.

"He is right Kankuro. Let him go," the cold voice of a young red-headed boy told the guy.

Naruto grinned manically and ran towards Gaara happily. She grabbed him and hugged him as he smiled back and fell over.

"Gaara!" she yelled enthusiastically as everyone else's jaws dropped at the sight of a Konoha shinobi hugging a murderous boy from Suna.

"Yes yes Naruto, I missed you too, but you don't need to knock me over every time we see each other," Gaara grumbled as he stood up.

"But it's fun!" she pouted as they began to walk away from the stunned ninja.

Their voices faded as the seven that stood there froze.

"Is it just me who is wondering how on _earth_ those two know each other?" the voice of Temari asked in wonder, the elder blonde who stood next to her brother Kankuro.

Everyone just shrugged.

At least it wasn't so awkward anymore.


	15. Just what

Chapter 15- Just... what

Naruto sniggered happily as they turned into an empty alley. Gaara frowned at her from beside her, wondering why she had done that.

"Oh, come on!" Naruto pouted, rolling her eyes playfully.

"I need a reason to keep sneaking out! Plus, you're here in Konoha so we have to make the best of our time together!" she reasoned, poking Gaara's arm.

He didn't reply.

"Gaara-kun?" she asked.

"You know you liked it..." Naruto said teasingly. He flushed a slightly darker pink and looked away.

She pulled her hands from his, and trailed them slowly up his chest. They tingled against Gaara's skin; she was actually here in person and not just linked through their minds... it made everything feel weird, and reactions happened that never happened to him before.

Naruto placed her hands delicately on his cheeks. This was why she had chosen a dark, deserted alley. Drawing his face around carefully until they faced each other, inches apart, the blonde closed her eyes and leant in.

Their lips met and Naruto started kissing him in earnest, neither of them sure where one person's mouth ended and the other started.

She smiled and ended the kiss, hugging him tightly before pulling away. Gaara stayed rooted to the spot with slightly darker than normal cheeks, and Naruto briefly glanced back to see what was taking him so long.

Seeing the lost expression on his face, she rolled her eyes and stepped back again to grab her boyfriend's hand.

"Come on!" she yelled enthusiastically.

"Why are you always so happy?" the red head asked grumpily.

In answer she beamed.

"Why are you always so grumpy?" Naruto retorted, and dragged him faster.

They ran back to where they had come from, Naruto realising suddenly that she had only a few minutes to get her slip back to Kakashi.

"Naruto, it is unnecessary to run. We can still make it without doing so," Gaara told her a bit unhappily as she pulled him back into the main road of Konoha.

"Now you tell me! Gaara-kun, why couldn't you have mentioned it before we ran?" she pouted at the boy.

"I did. You didn't listen," Gaara stated simply, walking calmly past the group who were still frozen where they had witnessed Naruto hug someone from another village, and Gaara not kill the blonde for doing so.

"What the hell is going on!?" Temari asked quietly to her eldest brother.

"How would I know?" he helpfully retorted.

Sakura and Sasuke were silent as they followed behind the secret (well, ish) couple, whilst Konohamaru, Moegi and Udon had vanished before this whole... _thing _started.

Frankly, Sakura sort of wished that she'd done the same.

* * *

><p>When they finally reached the training grounds (when had the five minute walk, minute's sprint, become so long?) things were no better.<p>

Naruto and Gaara insulted each other like an old married couple (where did the baka even know that killer from?) and everyone else was just silent.

Naruto paused in her teasing for a minute and leant in to whisper in Gaara's ear

"Kakashi-sensei's waiting in the tree above us. Be careful," he nodded solemnly, not even realising that his cheeks were once again a faint shade of pink.

However, Temari did and smirked. Was her little brother, a killer demon whom she loved, finally finding himself a crush?

A wary Sakura and Sasuke backed away a little at the grin on the blonde's face. They did not want to mess with her, _especially _when she was looking like that.

* * *

><p>Kakashi peered through the branches of the tree. There were his three genin, complete with slips, but who was with them?<p>

The man studied them carefully; a tall fierce girl with a large fan (long distance and close quarters probably- a wind user), a tall boy with marks on his face and something wrapped on his back (smelt of wood- a puppet user) and a shorter red head with black rings around his eyes and a brown gourd on his back (smelt like blood- he was an experienced killer, but he wasn't sure what weapon it was).

But the truly odd thing was that they were all from Suna.

The elder two, the wind and puppet users, were not socialising, but were clearly waiting with his team... probably for the third of their family?

Their sibling (most likely) was talking with Naruto about something (how did Naruto know him? It was odd; Kakashi had pegged that boy as unsociable, but here he was) and the other two in team 7 seemed left out.

But they were no threat. They were friendly- weapons down, alert but not battle ready, and chatting.

It was safe.

He jumped down from his tree and waved a friendly hello to the six people standing there.

Silence.

"What?" he asked, bemused.

"Sensei- you're- you're on time!" Sakura cried out in shock.

"Oh yes, so I am. Well, if you'd rather I came back later..." he turned around to face his tree again.

"But Sensei- the slips!" he scratched his head thoughtfully.

"Fine then... I suppose that I should collect them. Well, thanks! Ja ne!" and he was gone, back into the tree with his chakra signature concealed.

Team 7 looked at each other, then at their empty hands. People, hands, people, hands, people, Gaara...

Wait, what?

Naruto focused her attention and found her oh-so-sweet boyfriend standing there with a fist of sand dangling in the air, about to hit her. Attached to the front was a giant pair of lips.

Heading straight for her.

Whether they would kiss her or eat her, Naruto wasn't sure, but she ran anyway and Gaara followed quickly. The two Sand siblings followed after them quietly, and the four figures and a fist of sand disappeared into the distance.

The remaining genin stood there, flabbergasted (and truth be told, slightly horrified) before exchanging yet _another _shrug and walking away.

This was an interesting day. And to think, it wasn't even the afternoon yet.

* * *

><p>Gaara laughed at Naruto (who was visibly shocked at the sound) as she and Fu ran around screaming in the meeting.<p>

Utakata frowned and shook his head at the noise. Really; they were teens! They ought to be able to calm themselves.

Roshi laughed along with Gaara and slapped Utakata on the back.

**"Come on, they're just excited!" **Roshi grinned at Killer B.

**"You understand, don't you Killer B?"** the man showed his teeth happily and opened his mouth... which **Yugito promptly covered with an explosive tag.**

**"One word, one rhyme, and this goes off. Get it?" **the tall girl asked her 'captive'.

**"Of course swe-"** he replied with a muffled voice. Yugito laughed playfully and said

**"One word!" **and it exploded.

Bright pink smoke erupted directly into his mouth, and everywhere else for that matter, and 6 jinchuriki started coughing.

**"What was that for?" **Fu and Naruto yelled in sync.

Yugito sweatdropped as she saw them; mussed up hair from their dancing and pink powder covering every part of their body.

**"And how come you and Utakata aren't covered in it too?" **they yelled again.

Yugito looked down at herself, then across at Utakata as she noticed the gleaming bubble that surrounded them.

He blushed and looked at the floor, popping the bubble as he did so.

Fu and Naruto gaped at the dark haired boy. Turning to each other they wore identical evil grins.

Gaara stepped back.

**"UTAKATA'S GOT A CRUSH, UTAKATA'S GOT A CRUSH!"** they squealed, making the jinchuriki in question blush harder and send a bubble over their mouths so that they couldn't talk.

The bijuu glanced over at the sudden silence from their corner, and stifled a laugh at the sight of the two girls trying to unsuccessfully get the bubbles away from them.

They'd had it coming.

**"bmmph i hmmp ahmm pfuffpfuff!"** Naruto protested. It came out rather garbled, so Naruto held out a packet from her pocket, neatly wrapped with a bow.

Raising a slender eyebrow, the Rokubi's jinchuriki popped the bubbles.

**"Thank you!"** they cried happily. It had been a nightmare- no talking!

**"Right, present time!"** Naruto declared joyfully, handing around 8 wrapped up parcels as she spoke.

Everyone unwrapped the oblongs carefully, and Fu gasped.

**"It's lovely! Thank you so much Naru-chan!" **she yelled and threw her arms around her best friend. It was a picture, hand drawn by Naruto, of the eight of them along with the nine bijuu behind them.

Yugito smiled gratefully at the girl, before she noticed a flaw.

**"Wait, how do we get this back home? How did you get it here anyway?"** she questioned curiously.

The vivacious girl smirked.

**"Copy me, everyone," **Naruto stated calmly, and showed them the hand seals. The pictures vanished, back to the real world, and she nodded once.

Turning to Fu she asked

**"How long until you arrive?" **

**"Tomorrow!"** Fu squealed and the two of them went back to their dance routine.

Gaara rolled his eyes.

Girls. He'd never understand them.

* * *

><p>AN That was all a lead up into the next chapter... Fu arrives! And those presents are also for a prank... she's not the prank king (well, queen... monarch) of Konoha for nothing!

And thank you for the reviews! Been what, 13 hours? 3 reviews! I normally have one, or two if I'm lucky so thanks minna!


	16. The public get mentally scarred

Chapter 16- The public get mentally scarred

Thank you to Neeky-chan who made me publish this earlier- u would have got this on Monday otherwise!

Naruto opened her blue eyes as she retreated from her mindscape. She had got no sleep tonight, but it didn't matter too much since she had trained her body to stay awake for 60 hours at a time, and the time got longer with every late night.

There were two days until the exam, and Fu was arriving today!

**"Fu's arriving today!" **she yelled at her resident demon.

**"So I heard. All night long. Now, if you'll excuse me, I am going to sleep," **the weary Kyuubi replied.

Naruto sweatdropped. This was the all powerful, the great, Kyuubi no Yoko?

From her mind, one sleepy eye opened and Kyuubi chuckled.

**"Speak for yourself, oh mighty Kami no Hoshi," **Naruto looked at her in confusion.

**"Nani?"** she asked.

The kitsune just motioned with her head towards the girl's outfit.

She looked down to see what her friend was on about, and saw...

**"NANI!? What happened?" **the blonde screeched loudly. Kyuubi winced at the head-splitting sound and covered her ears with two tails.

**"You performed the jutsu whilst having it on you. I suggest you wash it off quickly. Now leave me alone,"**

Grumbling at the unhelpful demon irritatedly, Naruto tried to wash it off with her favourite water jutsu- the one that she used for cleaning.

Nothing happened.

Again she tried.

Nothing.

"GAAH!" She shouted. Birds fluttered from the branches and animals whined at the sound. Nearby shinobi winced and quickly escaped the area.

It wouldn't come off.

Oh well, she would just henge into her normal outfit and wash it off later. Naruto used her henge signs and jumped off to the training ground, whistling a happy tune to pass the time until she met Fu. The green haired girl had said that she would arrive in Konoha for about 8 o'clock, so Naruto was planning to meet her at the entrance to the village.

And take her with her on their first mission of course.

So caught up was she with her thoughts, Naruto didn't notice the curious glances given from every person she passed, or the outright snickers from a few daring villagers.

She was lost in a world of her own making as she made her way to where Gaara was staying, a slight detour on the way to the meeting place of her team since she wanted to train with spar with her boyfriend and show him in real life the earth jutsus that he had taught her.

Naruto landed daintily on the porch in front of the Subaku sibling's residence. She knocked once on the door and waited.

"NO, Kankuro, leave the door alone. I'll get it, you'd just scare them away," a voice angrily called from inside.

"And you won't?" came the other voice mockingly.

Naruto grinned as she recognised the voices to be Temari and Kankuro; Gaara's elder siblings.

The door swung open at that moment to reveal Temari standing there in her normal outfit with her oversized fan by her side.

"Well? What do you want?" she demanded Naruto.

"Please can you get Gaara?" the jinchuriki answered politely. She didn't want to make Gaara's sister angry- she had seen how scared Kankuro was... Gaara was just lucky that Temari was too frightened of him to get properly angry at him.

"He's upstairs," Temari said, then walked away, leaving the door open for Naruto to walk into. She stepped through the doorway, and jumped quickly up the stairs.

"GAARA!" She hollered, running into a bedroom. Inside she found... a semi-naked Kankuro. He looked up, startled, and when he saw that there was a blonde guy in his room, whilst he was dressed like that with no face paint... let's just say that Naruto ran out again as fast as she could and found the _right_ bedroom this time.

Banging on the door, she opened it and ran in. Grabbing a startled Gaara by the hand, the blonde dragged them both past Temari, who had her hand raised to knock on the door, into the street and attempted to run towards the gate to Konoha.

"Naruto!" Gaara shouted, pulling her arm close to him and looking her in the eye.

"I know Fu is arriving, but I am not. Going. Out. Like. This," he said clearly, faces centimetres apart.

"Why, what's wrong, Gaara-kun?" she asked cutely, fluttering her eyelashes at him.

"I'm in a towel, Naruto," he stated.

Silence.

"Oh," she answered, thinking face on. Then a devious grin passed over her features, causing Gaara to try and back away. He knew that look.

"And what's wrong with that?" she whispered, yanking his arm closer and kissing him fiercely.

"A lot," pant "Of things," he answered in between kisses.

"Meanie. Fine then, I'll meet Fu by myself. Bye!" she cried, teasingly leaning in, but running back and away to the gate before their lips touched.

Gaara stood there, alone in the street, in a towel.

Needless to say, people passing by gave him a wide berth.

* * *

><p>Temari frowned.<p>

The boy from yesterday, 'Naruto', had turned up at the door. She had been surprised, and quite suspicious, to see him arrive at this hour- even though Gaara did not need sleep like a regular person, he might be asleep right now...

And he wouldn't be happy if someone (even a friend) woke him up.

Should she have stopped Naruto?

A girly shriek could be heard from upstairs, deciding Temari's mind for her. What was wrong? Had Naruto been hurt?

Racing up the stairs two at a time, the girl drew out two kunai since her fan was somewhere else currently, and peeked around the corner.

There was nothing but the echo of two slammed wooden doors as she took in the hallway.

Temari knocked hastily on the first door.

"Kankuro? Are you alright? I'm coming in," she called out worriedly.

"Eek! No, don't do that! I'm- I'm not wearing much!" he squeaked back, and his elder sister rolled her eyes at him.

He hadn't changed much in all his years.

"Gaara? Are you al-" Naruto ran out of the door, clutching her baby brother's hand, and ran down the stairs.

"-right," she finished, feeling a bit stupid talking to thin air.

Temari wondered where the strange boy was planning on going with Gaara in a towel.

Hopefully nowhere public- or for that matter, anywhere out of the building. But it was a bit late for that.

* * *

><p>Naruto ran towards the gate. It was 5 to 8; Fu would arrive any minute... her team. The meeting was meant to start at 5 today- Kakashi would be arriving at eight!<p>

**"Oh well. I'll just have to be quick," **she thought to herself.

Naruto reached the gate quickly, eager to meet Fu in real life rather than the mindscape- it was so different!

She was finally going to meet her best friend.

* * *

><p>AN Sorry! I went away, start of school, homework, laziness... bout time I wrote this actually! It's been 2 and a half weeks! And yes, it is super short, but the dreaded disease of writers block caught up with me, and I think that if I had continued it would have got worse and worse through the chapter, and the end result would have been horrific.

I wanted to end it here!

Also, I would update this weekend, but I have scout camp so I get back late Sunday. Don't worry though- I'll try and find time to write in my notebook whilst there :-) just 4 u people


	17. Neon pink!

I'm so sorry! My only excuse is laziness… and a new obsession with Dr Who, and so I've been neglecting this… No more!

Peace offering? I'm updating and will do so again tomorrow? Are we good?

*ducks Naruto manga books* fine then. If that's how you want it to be, u'll only get one today!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I hold the power… fine, fine. I'll update today and tomorrow… but only for reviews!

Chapter 17- Neon pink!

Fu bounced down the worn path, annoying both of her teammates with her constant energy.

"Fu, please will you stop that?!" Katsu begged his teammate yet again.

Really, he thought, the energy Fu had even now, after 5 hours of solid travel, was astounding. In fact, she seemed more hyper now than when she started.

"Why are you so excited anyway?" the brunette questioned, blue eyes bright and curious as he looked upon the jinchuriki of the team.

Fu smiled widely, and motioned zipping her lips. Oh. So she didn't want to tell.

"Come on, you can tell me! I'm your best friend, aren't I?" he asked as he cautiously edged closer to her.

Fu's orange eyes sparkled with mischief as she danced away from him lithely, and backed off down the path.

"Only if you can catch me!" she yelled over her shoulder, sprinting across the soil with her green hair flying.

"You bet I will!" Katsu yelled in return, chasing her with a massive grin on his face. He liked Fu; she was so easy and fun to be around. Unlike the last member of their team.

Yukio frowned at his misfortune; he was stuck with a pair of idiot teammates who wanted to mess around with only two days left to prepare for the exams.

Plus, to add injury to insult, Fu had for some reason turned up with pink covering almost every part of her. The only parts that had stayed their original colour were her bangs (still an eye watering shade of green) and her hairclip (although it had been pink in the first place, at least it was better than a neon pink that the rest of her seemed to be).

He would separate off as soon as possible- he would not stay to be seen with a _pink_ teammate.

Never.

* * *

><p>Naruto waved to the two chuunin by the gate, Kotetsu and Izumo, as she raced out of the village and down the path.<p>

"Hiya!" she yelled as she zoomed past.

"Naruto, you need per-" Kotetsu started, but she was out of earshot.

"-mission... oh well," he finished, staring at the place where Naruto had vanished into.

Oops.

* * *

><p>Fu grinned happily as the gates of Konoha came into sight. She was almost there- there was just about 5 minutes walk to the village hidden in the leaf, where Naruto was.<p>

Or in her case, two minute's run.

"Come one slowcoaches!" she yelled to seemingly thin air. A reply bounced back, from the distant figure of Katsu.

"Just slow down! You," pant "are" more panting "crazy!" Fu laughed harder, and sped on and away from the annoyed-but-amused-despite-himself Katsu, and the brooding Yukio whom she could practically see rolling his eyes at their behaviour.

The brown haired boy that chased Fu from far behind grinned as well. These games were fun, even if he always ended up far, far away from his opponent. She was _way _too quick for him to ever catch up wi-

"Oof!" he gasped as someone crashed into him. Dazed, they fell down to the ground and looked at each other. The guy that he had crashed into jumped back to his feet and held out a hand.

"Sorry! I guess I wasn't looking where I was going," he told Katsu guiltily. The brunette beamed back at the boy, and grabbed a tan hand to pull himself back up.

"Don't worry, I wasn't looking either," he admitted, taking in the other's bright blonde hair, cerulean eyes and disturbingly pink appearance.

**"Kind of like Fu's,"** he thought to himself.

"Why were you in such a hurry anyway?" Katsu inquired curiously. The guy laughed and replied

"I'm waiting for a friend to arrive… I'm a bit overexcited…" he looked up hopefully.

"Have you seen her? Orange eyes, green hair, possibly covered in neon pink…" he trailed off.

"Yeah, she's my teammate, who you just ran past," Katsu laughed, and the other boy jerked his head up.

"Damn! Well, nice meeting you!" he called, already running back the way he came.

The boy grinned in return and stood still. Follow the strange boy… or be left with Yukio. Stranger, Yukio, stranger, Yukio.

"Wait!" Katsu cried, following the neon pink boy.

* * *

><p>Fu kept on going towards her best friend's home, pausing only when she saw a blurred figure zoom past.<p>

Had it been Naruto? She wasn't sure, and so Fu just shrugged her shoulders and ran on.

It wasn't until about a minute later that she stopped, hearing a familiar voice call her name from somewhere behind her. Confused, the green haired girl turned around and grinned happily at the sight of Naruto sprinting towards her from the direction of her teammates.

"Naru-chan!"

"Fu-chan!"

The two girls squealed enthusiastically as they hugged in the middle of the forest. They giggled, and pulled apart to examine the other in real life. It _should _be the same as in the mindscapes, but who knew. Naruto was weird.

"Umm…" the jinchuriki said at exactly the same time.

"Youarecompletelycoveredinpink,"

Both had glanced down at themselves as they realised what the other girl had said.

"Ahh! Why am I pink!" they yelled, still in unison as they finally noticed what was covering them.

"I henged this morning! Why is my henge pink as well?!" Naruto despaired, staring at neon clothes.

"You henged? Why?" Fu asked curiously, ignoring her clothes for now.

"Uh- Fu? Everyone in Konoha thinks I'm a boy…" the blonde told her clueless companion.

"Oh… why?" she asked slowly, looking at the _neon pink _appearance of her mate. The boy form of Naruto was odd; the same colour hair but shorter, same colour skin but less muscular, same face but with a couple of changed features…

"Oh my god!" Fu exclaimed, realising something.

"What is it?" Naruto answered, confused.

"You have no boobs!"

Silence reigned supreme as what Fu had just said registered in both of their minds.

Then both of them started laughing harder than they had ever done before, the humour only intensified when Katsu ran up and asked what was so funny.

Oh dear.

* * *

><p>Kakashi stared in bewilderment as Naruto turned up late, neon pink and laughing so hard he was crying.<p>

Along with a green haired, neon pink girl who was also crying with laughter.

"Um… Naruto?" he asked, stepping forwards to his student.

"What's going on?" Naruto and the girl exchanged looks and burst into yet more peals of laughter. Kakashi wasn't sure what was so funny, but it didn't seem like he was going to get an answer and so he continued with another obvious question.

"Why are you both pink?" the blonde and the girl who had arrived with him both stopped laughing and became angry. Synchronised, they yelled

"I am going to kill Yugito!" Kakashi's eyebrows shot up in surprise; he wasn't expecting that answer.

"Ok… How about we go get our missions, hmm?"

* * *

><p>Sarutobi wasn't quite sure what he was expecting when he saw Team 7 outside of his window, finishing off their missions for the day.<p>

However, he was certain that seeing three jinchuriki, two of them neon pink (the third only partly pink) was not right.

Since when were there even three jinchuriki in Konoha?

* * *

><p>Sasuke glared at the blonde baka. Who were these people who Naruto had decided could just join their team?<p>

And to make matters worse, they were ignoring him and speaking only to Naruto. How dare they ignore him? Naruto was an idiot, the dead last, and so the obviously powerful people who were in Konoha for the chuunin exams (things that went right over an idiot like Naruto's head) should speak to him!

Why? What had Naruto ever done to deserve their respect?

He, as the last Uchiha, deserved power and respect in order to kill his traitorous brother. And he would get the respect that he deserved.


	18. The threat of gossip girl

Arigato for the reviews! I got five, and so I have a gift for minna!

To guest: Danke! I'll try to add some more moments with Naruto and the Sabaku siblings- they are here for the entirety of the exams- but I'm going to attempt to add more confused! Kakashi and jinchuriki moments that make perfect sense to them and baffle the rest of the world…fun!

For now this is about half a chapter… I'm lazy… and so I will add the rest tomorrow! Promise!

Chapter 18- the threat of the gossip girl 

Naruto sat down nervously in her seat. Ibiki stood at the front, his scarred face staring out across all of the teams; attempting to scare them away before they even started.

**"Don't worry kit. We'll be fine. Whatever they throw at us, we will be fine!"**

**"Thanks Kyuu,"** Naruto replied with a weak smile. **"You know me and exams though…"**

"Hajime!" Ibiki yelled, and Naruto was off. She sucked the end of her pencil (bleurgh) and read the question through.

It was a cryptogram, nothing too hard, but Naruto made a big show of scratching her hair, turning the paper upside down to look at it another way, pulling a funny face at it (although that was more to make Kyuubi laugh than anything).

Out of the corner of her eye, Naruto could see Fu snickering to herself as she watched Naruto, ignoring the test in front of her as she had already done the first question, and that was all that they needed to pass the exam.

Gaara smiled a little bit too as he looked at his seemingly idiotic girlfriend, amazed by her acting skills.

**"No wonder she's kept her secret so long," **he thought to himself.

**"Ha! Finally I get the credit that I deserve!"** a quick voice cheered. Startled, Gaara threw his head up and looked around. Nobody seemed to have heard the interruption.

Rolling green eyes in amusement, the redhead sent a quick thought back to Naruto.

**"What do you deserve Naruto? A smack on the head? A kiss? Or something more…"**

Fu didn't miss the blush that crossed Naruto's face.

**"What's this then?" **she asked, channelling her youkai to Naruto and Gaara's minds. **"A party? You seem to have forgotten to invite me!"**

**"Ah ah, Fu, we were just… planning to!" **Naruto responded guiltily. Fu snorted mentally (A/N Is that possible? Sounds weird…) and said

**"Sure Naru-chan. Sure you were. Besides, I don't really want to witness the flirting between you two here. Just get a room!"** Fu laughed at their flaming faces as they instinctively looked away from each other.

This would be a fun hour.

* * *

><p>Kakashi frowned as he picked up a lot of concentrated chakra in the room below them, where the jounins were watching their teams on hidden cameras.<p>

To make matters worse, it seemed to be Naruto's chakra, and that leaking out was never a good thing.

He sent a wave of chakra downwards, towards his pupil, and focussed hard.

**"-was not my fault! It was Yugito, not me!" **Naruto was shouting. How was this possible? Telepathy?

**"Yes, sure… but you were still the one who left me alone on a street, neon pink, wearing a towel,"** a second voice retorted. It seemed to Kakashi to be Gaara, but it had too much emotion for him to associate it with the bloodthirsty Suna shinobi.

**"You did _what_ Naruto? Oh, this is priceless. I have so much to blackmail you with next time we meet Yugito and Utakata!" **this one was unfamiliar, and was talking about odd things. Who were Yugito and Utakata?

Were they even from Konoha?

**"Oh, shut up you. I know all about you and Katsu… do you want me to tell that to the gossip queen?"** Naruto retaliated. This was actually quite funny, the silver haired jounin thought, and started to chuckle out loud.

Jounins around him, including his loyal (well, ish) friends Asuma and Kurenai, backed away from the random laughter.

This was not normal behaviour.

Kakashi opened his eyes, and found the curious, amused and slightly fearful gazes of the jounin from around the countries looking at him.

He raised a hand to his neck sheepishly.

"Er… hi?"

Unfortunately, it didn't seem to do anything but make Asuma laugh. Oh well. At least now he had some information on the elusive blonde. Even cryptic info was better than nothing.

"Umm, Kakashi? Are you feeling alright?" Asuma asked his friend, concerned for his mental health.

"Why wouldn't I be?" the man replied, sounding quite affronted.

"Well, it's been a while since you started laughing manically…" there was silence around the room as they processed what Asuma had said.

"Asuma! So much for 'I swear I'll never tell'! Besides, it was funny!" Kakashi told his friend defensively.

"Besides, it wasn't just random laughing. Naruto and two others, were communicating telepathically, and whilst I couldn't speak a word, I could hear everything they said. They mentioned people called Yugito, Utakata and Katsu. Anyone?" Kakashi explained.

No one spoke. Oh well. It was worth the try. They could check in their bingo books later, or maybe Sandaime would know…

* * *

><p>Naruto giggled with Fu as they jumped after the purple haired proctor who was taking their second exam.<p>

Gaara was on her other side, smiling in his tight lipped way, whilst Temari and Kankuro watched warily from a short distance away.

"Kankuro," Temari hissed. "Are you sure that Gaara hasn't been kidnapped?"

Kankuro rolled his eyes.

"Yes Temari, I believe that this is actually the real Gaara, no matter how far-fetched it seems. Now can we _please_ focus on the exams?"

"…Fine. Just watch him, okay?" Temari answered back sulkily. Oh well.

* * *

><p>Anko finished explaining the rules to the hopeful chuunin, and looked around.<p>

"And as to why this place is called the forest of death? Well, you'll soon find out…" she trailed off, leaving an eerie silence around the group…

"YOU DON'T SCARE ME!"

…until Naruto decided to break it.

"You're spirited, good, but-" Anko sped forwards with a kunai drawn. Naruto pretended not to see her opponent as she came.

"-people like you get killed the fastest," and she dew the kunai across where Naruto's cheek had been. Naruto had, against her will, instinctively flinched backwards so that Anko couldn't reach her.

Anko looked confused as she saw that no blood had been spilt onto the end of her kunai. Looking up, the purple haired proctor saw Naruto, sheepishly standing there unhurt, and the most of the group gaping at the blonde.

"Fine then. You're fast, I'll give you that. But now, everyone, it is time to enter the forest of death!" the groups split up and walked towards their gates.

Anko paused, and grabbed Naruto's shoulder.

"Good luck, kiddo," she said in a half friendly tone, before pushing the surprised girl away from her.

"And get ready!" Anko cried as Naruto joined her team at gate number 12. They all looked at each other, and saw resolve in their teammates' eyes. They were ready.

"Three! Two! One! Go!" the tokubetsu jounin yelled, and the gates opened wide. The 28 teams left wasted no time in running through the open gates, into the dark forest.

Anko smirked. Who knew how many teams would emerge alive?


	19. Oh, THAT giant snake

I know, I know, this is ridiculous and I took forever, but good news! I have a beta now (wave hello, lovleydragonfly!) and a new update schedule! I solemnly swear that I will update three times a week- and maybe an one shot for special occasions (hi valentine's day!)

Chapter 19- Oh, THAT giant snake

Naruto cursed, and dodged under yet another insect.

"DAMN YOU FU!" she yelled into the empty air, startling the birds out of their- oh. That's right. THERE WERE NO BIRDS.

Instead, blood-sucking, flesh-eating, ginormous monsters pricked up their metaphorical ears and crept closer.

Unaware of this, Sakura and Sasuke stared at the blonde, wondering what they had done wrong in life to get the crazy girl on their team.

**"HAHA!" **Fu telepathically yelled back.

"Shut up Fu. I win any day at the evil laughter competition," Naruto muttered under her breath before drawing in a great big lungful of air, and laughing manically.

The forest shook.

Sakura and Sasuke were in agreement for once as they backed away slowly.

The hidden carnivores shivered, and retreated far away.

**"…You never let me have any fun," **Fu pouted from the other side of the forest.

**"Well done, kit. I'm proud of you,"** Kyuubi smirked from her viewpoint inside of Naruto's mindscape.

**"Thanks Kyuu. Now, Fu? Gaara-kun?" **Naruto beamed out.

**"Yes, Naru-chan?" **the two jinchuriki answered at the same time.

Naruto shivered, in much the same way as the man eating creatures had done earlier, and hastily replied

**"Please don't do that. Anyway… what I wanted to say was… FIRST ONE TO THE TOWER GETS ALL OF THEIR FAVOURITE FOOD THAT THEY CAN EAT!"**

Naruto burst into motion as she yelled, startling her two stationary teammates.

* * *

><p>Sakura yelped as Naruto suddenly moved. It was almost like the third member of Team 7 had been talking to herself; yelling at a person called Fu, muttering something, spontaneous evil laughter (Sakura unconsciously retreated as she remembered it) and now this.<p>

"Wait! Naruto, you baka, we have to complete this as a team! You can't try and des-"

* * *

><p>Sakura shouted after Naruto as she sped off through the trees, wanting the free ramen that she could get if she was first.<p>

Naruto ignored her, until an ominous silence broke out halfway through Sakura's mini speech.

Cursing violently, the teen whirled around and rushed back to the spot where all three of them had been gathered.

Sasuke stood there, seemingly alright, but Sakura was nowhere to be seen. They had to find her, but where had she gone?

Ignoring Sasuke for the moment, she ran over to the branches that Sakura had been standing on. There should be a small depression where her feet had been placed, just about- that was odd.

Why was there no mark?

Come to think of it, where were the leaves?

It had to have been a powerful wind jutsu, Naruto concluded, running forwards to grab Sasuke's hand and drag him away to find their missing team mate.

That was when she saw it.

A giant snake, at least the size of a house, was around 20 metres in front of them, with a grass ninja on its back.

* * *

><p>"Well then. What do we have here?" the grass nin hissed at the Konoha shinobi who stood in front of her snake.<p>

One of them was frozen to the spot, her Killing Intent too high for him to move, and the other hadn't even noticed her before he turned around.

She frowned, face creasing into lines. With the amount of KI that she had been focussing on the Uchiha boy, he ought to have felt at least _some _of it.

Why hadn't he?

"You, boy. What's your name?" she asked, curious about the identity of one who seemed so powerful.

Although… he was dressed in a day-glow orange suit. It was a shame that his fashion sense wasn't as good as his apparent skill.

"Uzumaki Naruto, dattebayo!" the short boy yelled.

He obviously didn't scare easily. This would be a fun prey to hunt.

"Well then, Naruto-kun, how about a little spar? Only to the death of course, and maybe your precious friend would rather join in than kill himself?" she hissed amusedly.

Naruto turned towards Sasuke, confused despite herself.

"What do you mean?" she asked, clearly seeing Sasuke alive and well in front of her.

The kusa nin smirked.

"Why, this is what I mean," the unknown woman said as her KI suddenly ramped up.

Naruto's cerulean eyes widened as it happened, and Sasuke gingerly took out a kunai from his pouch. Staring straight ahead, as if he was in a trance, the sharp object was raised slowly to his neck.

"No! Sasuke-teme, don't!" she yelled, ignoring the fact that she was right next to him.

Nothing happened.

She rolled her eyes, knowing the seriousness of the situation and sighing as Naruto realised that she would have to give away some of her skills.

"Fine then, you b***. If that's how you want it, it's on," the blonde said, narrowing her eyes and unleashing her KI.

The force of it was so strong that it shredded the other girl's KI to bits, and forced them to their knees. Warily, Naruto darted forwards and sliced across the unprotected neck of the other, killing her instantly.

Catching the demonic intent that had been released along with her KI, the jinchuriki strode forwards and shook Sasuke. His eyes rattled around in the eye sockets for a moment, until they squinted ahead a little and saw

"Naruto?"

"Are you alright, teme?" she asked, a bit gently as she knew that he would be shaken up by his first real experience with KI.

"I'm ok- there was- grass nin- snake- danger-"he babbled slightly, remembering the events that had lead up to his current state.

"It's okay, she's dead, and the snake is-" Naruto was suddenly cut off as something grabbed the neck of her jumpsuit and lifted her up.

"Naruto?!" Sasuke shouted, panicking again as his loud teammate was hoisted from the ground.

Naruto reached down, and found a long, slimy appendix wrapped around her waist.

"Eww! Get your tongue off of me!" she shouted, struggling to lift it off of her. The ninja chuckled, bringing Naruto to eye height.

"So the Kyuubi brat still lives then? After 12 long years…"

"Creep!" Naruto yelled at the ninja, summoning a seal-less Kage Bunshin behind the girl. It pulled out a seal from a hidden pocket, and in one quick movement, it was attached to the back of her neck.

"What?" The ninja yelled, releasing the squirming Naruto as she did so. Naruto fell lightly onto the snake, sticking another unnoticeable seal onto the summoning animal, before jumping hurriedly to the branch.

The blonde looked up just in time to see the other shinobi try and move, when the seal placed on her neck flickered once and sent a sharp electric through her body.

Her eyes widened in surprise, before narrowing thoughtfully.

"Interesting…" she said, reaching up to rip off the seal in a fluid movement.

It came off easily, but all of the remaining chakra in it transformed itself into heat, which seared the woman's flesh with second degree burns.

Naruto smiled grimly, seeing her invention working, but it was her turn to be shocked as the horrifically disfigured skin of her enemy started to peel away, revealing another face beneath it.

"Even more interesting… I never expected that it would be the demon boy who would show my true form…"

The skin continued melting off into the air as the young jinchuriki finally recognised the face that lay beneath the disguise of a hidden grass ninja. She gasped.

"Orochimaru…Why are you here? Leave at once!" Naruto yelled at the S-rank missing nin, who was forbidden from ever returning to Konoha after the crimes that he had committed in his search for immortality.

"So you recognise me do you? Well… go on then, little kitsune. I'm waiting… show me how a shinobi of Konoha fights… unless you want your teammate to be killed trying," The now exposed Orochimaru baited the girl.

Naruto jerked at the mention of Sasuke, who was indeed behind her on the branch. Whirling around hurriedly, she saw that he was preparing to throw 5 shuriken at the dangerous man behind her.

"Wait, Sasuke!" Naruto shouted frantically.

**"Kit, I believe that… we need to fight him. Just please, be careful, and another thing… Sasuke should not see this," **Kyuubi spoke with an air of finality.

**"Thank you, Kyuu. I will be careful,"** Naruto replied as she leapt over to the Uchiha.

"I'm sorry, Sasuke, I really am but… this is not your fight," she said, and reached across his shoulder. The nerve in the back of his neck was hit, and Sasuke collapsed unconsciously into her waiting arms.

Naruto created another seal, another Kage Bunshin appearing to guard the boy whilst the two high level shinobi fought, as she released her henge.

The girl stood in front of the enemy in her customary black outfit, and slowly swung her bow off of her back.

Eyeing the target carefully, Naruto breathed in, and out. In and out. The arrow was notched, black fletching securely fastened to it along with an experimental seal.

It was released.


	20. More than prepared

Chapter 20- More than prepared

_Twang!_

The dark arrow flew through the air silently, flying towards its target even as Naruto raced backwards with ink splattering over her tanned skin.

It found its mark easily; burrowing into the pale skin of Orochimaru's arm which had been swiftly raised over his chest, covered as it was by a thin beige cloth.

"Well well. It seems that the bee can sting. What do you think, Manda?" Orochimaru observed; his tone of voice too happy for the current situation that they were in.

Manda remained silent, but his eyes glared menacingly at Naruto.

"This could be quite fun… come on, little vixen. What are you waiting for?" Orochimaru laughed, pulling out the arrow and dropping it to the ground below.

Naruto gritted her teeth, and flashed through a series of hand seals.

"Futon Atsuga!" She yelled, the B rank jutsu whipping her hair around wildly as she stood in the heart of the storm. All around her, the technique spread and reached Orochimaru and the trees.

"Katon zukkoku!" Naruto added, having finished the hand seals whilst Orochimaru was distracted.

The small fireball was launched into the midst of the wind jutsu where it expanded rapidly, covering the area around the jinchuriki in flames. In the very centre of the jutsus Naruto was safe from harm with only the heat reaching her.

Orochimaru's smirking figure was hidden from view, Manda along with him as the wall of flames passed in front of her

Narrowing her eyes, the girl squinted into the heat to find her enemy.

The flames died away with the wind as Naruto ended the technique in order to find him. She easily spotted the area where he had been previously, but the snake sannin had disappeared.

She saw Manda slither off, presumably to find Sakura, and cursed but found there was no time to stop him, or to even think of doing it.

"Naruto-chan…" she heard a whisper by her ear, but as she turned swiftly to deal with him, a flash of colour from where she had been facing caught her attention.

Instinctively, the girl leaned backwards and flipped to a safer spot as Orochimaru's arm whipped past where she had been standing, Kusanagi held firmly in his right hand.

"Futon Tatsu no Oshigoto!" she called out, the wind obeying her command and blowing stronger and stronger across their make-shift battle arena.

"Juha repu sho!" Naruto cried out and claws of her own wind chakra, mixed with Kyuu-chan's potent chakra, solidified around her feet, giving them a much longer and sturdier reach.

She grinned darkly, and canine teeth showed where they had sprouted from her gums with the use of Kyuubi's chakra.

Moving at her full speed now, Naruto reached behind her fluidly and pulled her powerful bow out from behind her.

The chakra claws grew as Naruto focused on them, and then she looked at Orochimaru.

He stood there, still watching her every move, and whilst he seemed bored and slightly amused, Naruto caught the attentive gleam in his eyes as he saw her formidable outfit.

Red claws, at least 5 meters long, a midnight blue bow with a lethal arrow notched in her hands, blonde hair free to move, dark whiskers, long canines and a skin tight outfit on; Naruto was feeling quite badass.

She hadn't worn this battle outfit in Konoha (not with all of its improvements) and it was time to break it in.

Silently, Naruto flickered behind the sannin, and when he turned around again (why did he have to have such fast reactions?!) she flickered in front of him.

Front, back, front, back, the blonde moved and started to quick fire arrows at him, before gathering her chakra ready to hopefully catch him off guard.

"Go," she whispered softly, not pausing for a second before releasing her carefully stored chakra in a layered genjutsu.

It pulsed through the trees, amplified for the sannin by the close distance that he stood at. Dazed, he didn't notice the dark storm clouds that gathered for a few brief seconds before disintegrating into fluffy white ones.

Thunder rumbled in the sky, and her opponent looked up quickly.

But it was too late.

The mere seconds that he had been distracted had been of great advantage to her, allowing time for Naruto to flash through yet another series of hand signs.

"Katon Hibashiri!" she could now yell, creating a flaming ring of fire that darted forwards and blazed all around Orochimaru. However, the girl had seen his earlier trick and created second and third rings of fire, one above his head and another below the ground to prevent him from going under there.

The wind jutsu finally materialised and it formed a small hurricane around the man, again combining with the fire, but unlike the last time there was nowhere for Orochimaru to hide.

Naruto used the seconds well as she pulled out an exploding tag, and wrapped it around an arrow, purposely not adding any chakra to it though. It was swiftly placed back in the holster as the jinchuriki pulled out a brush and some ink from her pocket.

Time to see if any of this fuuinjutsu practice had done any good.

* * *

><p>"Fuuinjutsu!" Naruto yelled, finishing the sequence of hand signs that she had been doing off and on for the last ten minutes. She and Orochimaru had been fighting for a total of around 15 minutes, but Naruto had many cuts criss-crossing over her arms, and a few on her legs.<p>

Orochimaru, as a very high level ninja himself, had caused the damage but in turn Naruto had harmed the sannin quite a lot.

He now had cuts slashed across one another across his back, heavy enough to draw blood but not really deadly enough to get Orochimaru to change into a new body. She was quite proud of her work, all done with her wind jutsu that had attacked from all directions, her arrows slipping through the cracks in his defence as he neutralised the wind techniques.

However, this was his mistake as the marks started to glow red, as a result of Kyuubi's chakra also being used, and it began to drain his chakra, and at the same time prevented him from using it.

She had discovered a whole new use for this bow, and the chakra that it contained. Naruto had learnt that whilst normally seals like this required hours worth of attention, and bucket loads of chakra, but her arrows could be infused with the potent mix of her chakra and Kyuubi's chakra through the gemstone embedded secretly into the bow.

The jinchuriki had learnt to control the chakra carefully, and every time she notched an arrow now, she pushed the chakra in a fine line around the bow so that the special seals on the arrow would soak it in before it actually reached the girl and shocked her.

It was always good not to hurt yourself with your own jutsu.

**"You speak from experience, kit,"** Kyuubi chuckled.

**"Not that much! And anyway, is now really the time?"** Naruto shot back, leaping out of the way of yet _another _attempted bite from the giant snake.

It was really bugging Naruto, but she knew that the seal placed on its head at the start would finish its job very soon.

It was a chakra draining one but it stored the chakra inside it. This meant that Naruto could use the right hand seal and unlock the chakra, using it or transferring it to her bow to make it more powerful.

Really, it would depend on the situation.

Orochimaru started to turn a bit paler.

_"Damn it!"_ He thought to himself quietly. _"Has she done something to me? Why do I feel so tired?"_

Given a bit more time, the sannin was sure to figure it out (the Uzumaki were famous for one thing in particular) but Naruto didn't intend to give him this time.

_Thwack! _ A resounding kick finally connected with the freaky man, and Naruto quickly bombarded him with punches, kicks and the occasional head butt.

Staggering backwards (since when had a little kid like her had so much power?), Orochimaru attempted to slide into a new body.

He couldn't.

Naruto noticed her opponent's panicked expression, and smirked. That, at least, was taken care of.

Now it was time for the final stages of her plan. Manda, the hebi-sannin's summon, fell to the floor in a cloud of smoke as the last dredges of its chakra were sucked away.

A Kage Bunshin was formed to wait in the woods until Orochimaru was completely distracted.

Naruto then looked up at the beaten-up man, and yelled at him.

"Wow, you are weak. I mean, a little thing like me is beating you? I guess jiji was just too sentimental to kill you. Well, no need to worry. I can finish off what he started," Naruto growled out, teeth nicking her finger as she infused their extra potent chakra with the blood that dripped out, and she drew a series of circles on a scroll, sticking it to the floor with chakra.

It was a classic example of the Uzumaki fuuinjutsu that they were so well-known for, but it was one that Kyuubi had taught Naruto after viewing the seal in secret many years before.

The girl was certain that her opponent had no idea what it did.

"Come get me then!" she yelled, throwing caution to the wind and hoping that her plan worked.

It was efficient to a point; Orochimaru ran at her, but as he jumped clear over her seal Naruto wondered if there was time to change her strategy.

There wasn't, in case anyone was wondering.

**"Naru-chan! Focus! Battle here, we shouldn't be messing with the fourth wall at the same time," **

**"Sorry Kyuu-chan,"** Naruto answered, running through yet more hand signs.

She paused at the last one and saw Orochimaru look all around him for the threat. The clone came underground, just as ordered, and jumped up, knocking the man backwards with a well executed punch to the jaw.

"Kukuku. So Naruto-chan, it seems like you are strong, not weak like the villagers who hate you are. Come with me, Naruto-chan, and you can get all of the revenge you want on this piti-" he monologue, before being cut off by a appearance of a smoke cloud.

Smiling, she walked forwards to grab the scroll that the man had just been sealed into.

Naruto was going to make him pay for his experiments against those poor children of Konoha.

* * *

><p>AN I'm sorry that this chapter is late and unbeated, but I just want to get this out tonight. Hope you all enjoy!


	21. Rest in peace

Chapter 21- Rest in peace 

Sasuke groaned loudly, and opened his eyes. What had been happening… trees… exam… snake… guy…

Wait, snake guy! What had happened to Naruto? Was he okay?

"N-Naruto?" he called out, still groggy from his enforced sleep.

At this point he remembered just how he had got her. Naruto, evil being that he was, had knocked him out just before the fight.

And since when could the blonde do that anyway?

"Sasuke-kun!" he heard a high pitched squeal, before his sleepiness turned to horror as he was man handled into a hug. Opening his eyes in a narrow glare (how dare they touch him) he found-

"I'm so glad that you're awake!"

-a pink haired menace clinging on to him.

"Gaah!" he yelled, most definitely awake by now.

"Oh good, you're awake," the Uchiha heard another voice from behind him. Swivelling quickly (a great feat when attempting to survive a hug from a fangirl) the boy found Naruto standing behind him.

"Naruto? Are you- I mean, how did a baka like you survive without any injuries?" Sasuke asked, almost asking if the blonde was alright.

Meanwhile, Naruto grinned like a Cheshire cat as she heard Sasuke's sentence. He had been about to ask if she was okay! Aww, she had known that he was good somewhere in that stone heart of his.

"By being cleverer than someone like you," a third voice interrupted their conversation (Sakura didn't count; she was too busy squealing like banshee).

A red head stood _very _closely behind Naruto, arms loose by his sides. Naruto registered him, and her eyes went wide as she realised how close he really was. She stood, still as a statue, as she noticed one of his hands was dangling centimetres away from her behind.

He was playing a dangerous game, being like this in public, but two could play at this game.

Barely noticing Sasuke behind her as she rotated around to face her smirking boyfriend, she casually asked him

"And where were you then?" Naruto demanded, mask coming into play too, at least for everyone around them as she stood with mere inches measuring the distance between her lips and his lips.

Only Gaara could see, from this close, how her eyes had darkened with challenge and her mouth was tempting him to try and kiss it; hands in pockets that _so almost_ touched his leg.

He gulped.

Naruto was so much better at this game than he would ever be.

* * *

><p>It had taken Gaara the entirety of half an hour, multiple death threats, standing extremely close to Naruto and a rather memorable chicken (don't ask) to finally corner his girlfriend alone.<p>

For some reason, every single one of Naruto's 'friends' had decided to come and visit them at that moment when Gaara had decided to just sneak off to a dark room with Naruto, not to mention most of her guy ones as well, and they had just not let up.

Not once.

… Well, he lied. Fu had taken one glance at him standing possessively behind the blonde and blatantly laughed at their situation.

And then had stuffed an excitable hen down his back, but really, that didn't need to be brought up again.

Everyone else had just missed the aura emitting from the annoyed jinchuriki and continued chatting, but he had won in the end since he could now do _this._

Leaning forwards aggressively, he captured Naruto's lips in his own rough ones, and kissed her. She made a small 'eep' of surprise (which Gaara found totally adorable) before smiling and kissing him back. They had been in their corridor a while now, both losing track of time, when a gasp of surprise (shock to be more precise) caught their attention.

There, at the other end of the hall, stood… many, many people.

Oh dear.

Temari stood at the front, her expression of shock mirrored by Sakura, Ino, Hinata, Kiba, Tenten, Choji, Lee, Kankuro, and Kurenai.

Behind them stood Sasuke, Neji, Shikamaru and Shino. Neji and Sasuke were far too prideful to show an expression such as shock, whilst Shikamaru had guessed this outcome already and Shino… well, no one could see what he felt about it since he gave no sign of expression, like always.

Kakashi just froze to the spot, eyes wide in surprise at his energetic student.

Fu giggled as she rounded the corner and bounced past the stunned group, and towards Naruto.

Naruto sweatdropped at Fu's evil smirk and the Konoha shinobi's positions. She hoped Gaara had a plan for this; what the hell were they going to do now?

"Gaara-kun," she hissed warily. "Help!"

However, he seemed frozen as well and so Narutp turned away, rolling her eyes.

"Boys!" she mouthed to her green haired friend as she joined Naruto and linked arms, grinning happily at the jinchurikis' position. Really, she could be more supportive of Naruto, the girl thought grumpily.

**"Kyuu-chan?"**Naruto inquired hopefully.

**"Sorry kit. Ganbatte!"** the fox cheered sleepily, watching the drama from behind half lidded eyes. Naruto frowned as she finally turned to face the front.

"Ano… Hi?" Naruto said uncertainly.

Everyone was in sync this time as they face faulted onto the floor.

* * *

><p>"So you and Gaara are going out? Like for real?" Kiba asked cheerfully (apparently he recovered well from shock; unfortunately for the peace and quiet of the tower).<p>

"Hai," Naruto answered, uncharacteristically quiet in the light of one of her secrets being discovered; having had it dragged backwards from the shadows under the hedge, screaming about civilian rights, and unleashing the curse of the neon pink on them.

It hadn't quite worked out the way it planned (read: it had completely backfired and Naruto ended up hitting herself, Gaara and Fu with it instead of the intended targets) but it had been fun to try.

Talking of the paint…

"Fu?" Naruto whispered towards her best friend who sat behind her. The jinchuriki turned around quickly, narrowly avoiding Naruto's spiky blonde hair with her elbow, and grinned at her.

"Nani?" she questioned cheerfully.

"I just remembered…. We are still covered in pink paint…" Naruto trailed off, hoping for her friend to get the gist.

"Huh?"

However, let it never be said that Fu had a talent for subtle hints (relationships aside, the girl truly sucked at identifying them).

"Well… we are going to be teased mercilessly… or potentially killed for stealing Yugito's move," Naruto answered.

Fu's eyes widened almost comically in realisation.

"Oh no…" she breathed.

"She's GONNA KILL US!" They yelled together, the true horror of the situation catching up with them.

* * *

><p>After the girls had been calmed down (and every male in the room sported a headache from the combined screeches of Fu and Naruto) Kakashi came up with a good idea to pass the time.<p>

Never mind training- this would be more fun!

"So," the masked ninja started.

"Who wants to play truth or dare?"

* * *

><p>Konichiwa minna-san!<p>

I'm back! I have finally sorted out my irritating homework, and so I once again have time for my stories. Tomorrow, I hope to update another chapter of this one, or I might actually make a start on renovating my one-shot-that-will-be-multi-chaptered fic 'Naruto and an overload of Hyuuga'.

We shall see what the day brings!


	22. Of impromptu parties

Chapter 22- Of impromptu parties

Kurenai face palmed, multiple tines, as she wondered how exactly, they had got into this. It had been a perfectly innocent gathering (albeit one to find out the true relationship of Gaara and Naruto) until her _annoying, stupid _and quite possibly _dead_ by the time she was inished with him comrade had got them into this.

Everyone was sat as if they were first years in the academy; on the floor in a circle. She could just imagine Kakashi standing up and going 'Today we will be learning about…'

She blinked. Wait…

"Kakashi! You got us into this, so shut up and start the game before I genjutsu squirrels everywhere!" Kurenai threatened the masked man as he paled and sat down with a thump.

She smiled. Nothing like a good bit of yelling to cheer a person up.

Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura frowned. What was up with the squirrels? Kakashi was terrified of them, and literally screamed every time he came across one. If an enemy ever found out…

The girl sweatdropped at the thought of the Kazekage releasing squirrels at their forces as Kakashi ran around in chibi form, trying to escape the squirrels. It was a fun image.

"…He he… he he…" Naruto accidently started chuckling out loud. Everyone in the room, which had finally become quiet, looked at the daydreaming girl at the same time. You could practically hear the thoughts in people's minds going 'What's up with her?'

In fact, if you were Fu, Gaara or Naruto you could…

"Oops… Gomenasai," Naruto said as she realised what she was doing and stopped laughing, reaching up a casual hand to the back of her neck.

"Ano… okay then… who wants to start?" Kiba asked enthusiastically, looking around the room. There was silence.

The dog boy blinked. He glanced down at the white puppy by his side and shrugged.

"Guess it's us then, huh, Akamaru?" The dog barked in return, and Kiba laughed and pondered for a moment.

"So then… Shikamaru!" he yelled, poking the dozing brunette with a hard jab in the side. The boy barely moved, muttering a quiet 'Mendokuse' and cracking open one eyelid. Kiba took the opportunity to ask the boy a question.

"So then Shikamaru… truth or dare?"

"Truth," the boy replied instantly. The shinobi groaned as one, predicting that the lazy boy would go for the easier option.

"Okay then… What do you prefer; boobs or… you know…?" Kiba asked daringly.

Shikamaru shrugged.

"Easy. Anyone, as long as it's not you," came the quick-witted response.

Kiba frowned, and muttered something about being glad under his breath, but Shikamaru had already started his turn.

"Fu…" he said, not knowing the lively girl very well.

"Truth or dare?"

"Um… truth…" she responded apprehensively.

"When's your birthday?" Shikamaru asked as he took the opportunity to find out more rather than just play the game.

There were groans from the more immature members of the group, but Fu grinned a little.

"Today," she smiled, shocking them all.

"You never said!" Naruto squealed in shock, realising that she had to do something to celebrate it.

"Okay then, meet me here in about an hour for a birthday tea!" Naruto arranged hurriedly, thinking of something to do with her best friend.

"Sounds good Naru-chan!" Fu responded in her favourite, bubbly voice before standing up and bowing.

"Gomenasai, but I have to go. My teammates want to practice with me now," She said, picking up her bag and walking out of the room.

Stunned silence was left in her wake.

Slowly but surely then, Naruto smiled an evil smile.

"You know what this means?" she asked their group. No one answered, staring at her in confusion.

"Come on! We need to make a surprise birthday party!"

* * *

><p>"Okay then. Minna, jobs for everyone," Naruto hissed quickly, knowing that they had just over an hour to complete their task.<p>

"Hinata, Shino and Chouji, the deserts including the cake. Ino, Neji, Kiba and Tenten, decorations. Sasuke- no wait, that's a bad idea… Shikamaru, Kurenai and Sakura on presents from all of us. Kankuro, Kakashi and Sasuke on food. Lee and Temari on venue," Naruto read down the list, each person nodding as their name was called.

"Let's meet back in 45 minutes! Have fun!" Naruto grinned and grabbed Gaara's hand.

"Oi, Naruto! What are you doing? You're not allowed to just go off and snog Gaara you know!" Kiba yelled.

"Baka! Invitations of course!" Naruto yelled back, not even stopping to respond.

Kiba looked embaressed. "O-Okay then,"

* * *

><p>"So let's see… the only people I know to invite are the jinchuriki… and I don't know how I would explain that to the other guys…" Naruto mused, aimlessly twiddling a biro around in her mouth. She had changed back to her feminine form whilst there was no-one nearby, and her red headed companion had greatly appreciated it.<p>

He loved Naruto, but it was a bit odd to be kissing what seemed like a boy. Her as a girl was a lot better.

"How about… we send the message to the leader of Takigkure, and let the jinchuriki watch via seals that I can set up," Naruto suggested hopefully.

Gaara kissed a strand of blonde hair.

"Sounds like a plan," he responded.

* * *

><p>Hinata brushed her hair out of her eyes again with a quick flourish of a floury hand. It fell behind her ear, and she quickly went back to kneading the dough that they were making for a pastry sort of desert that was on the list. Chouji was working beside her; friendly grin and deft hands making all kind of deserts in a way that only the Akimichi could.<p>

Hinata paused briefly to check on Shino-kun, who stood behind her. He was also working fast with a chocolate chip batter (according to Naruto, Fu's weakness was chocolate which explained the amount of chocolate desserts on the food list. Not that Hinata was complaining).

They had green icing to cover the cake, the same shade as Fu's hair, and Naruto had given them candles that apparently he had made (although Kiba thought that they were shop bought because of the seals on the sides. They were joke candles, in that you could program a person's chakra into them and every time they came near, the candles would relight.

Fu's chakra was also apparently coded in.

Just another thing to love about Naruto-kun; he could be organised when he wanted to be.

* * *

><p>Temari walked down the road in huge, hurried strides, dragging the annoying boy who wouldn't stop sputtering things about his 'Gai-sensei' and 'youth!'<p>

It had been about five minutes since they had left Naruto and the others, and she was already pulling him by the ear to make him shut up.

The blonde haired girl twitched. The things she did to make her brother happy.

* * *

><p>"Is there any hair grips in here?" Sakura called out to her companions as she examined the list of presents that they had to try and find.<p>

They were rather bizarre, obscure presents like '500g of Fairtrade chocolate', or 'glittery hair grips of any colour (preferably bright' or even things like 'anything with the number seven on' and 'insect related objects'. Would this Fu girl really like these?

For that matter, why wasn't Shino sent with them? He could find insect related things more easily than them, surely…

Sakura sighed as Shikamaru shook his head in response to her question. No hair grips. Damn.

Time for the next shop then. Two items on the list checked off… and 25 minutes left to meet up.

* * *

><p>Kakashi examined the shelves carefully. Five more bits of food left to gather.<p>

He was sure that there was a mistake on their shopping list though.

Was there really a product that sold chocolate on pizza? Was that essential to the party? The man couldn't see how essential this could be for the life of him.

Straightening up from his crouched position where he had been checking the bottom shelves, Kakashi crashed into something hard and pointy.

"Ow," he said in a dull monotone. It was funny this way.

"Kakashi? What are you doing?" the person that he'd bumped into questioned.

"Ano… I'm looking for pizza," he answered, grateful for some help.

"… do you normally find it in the underwear isle?" Asuma replied with a nod towards a big sign that said in big writing 'Underwear section'.

Kakashi blinked, rubbed his eyes and looked again. There it was, still unmoved, showing Kakashi where he was.

Had that always been there?

"Oh… I was too busy keeping an eye on the younger ones…" the silver haired man excused himself.

"Really? Where are they?" he asked curiously.

Kakashi smiled, eye crinkling happily.

"They are just there," he said and pointed to where Sasuke and Kankuro stood, true to his word, even though they both stared straight ahead, away from the other with blank stares. Kakashi sweat dropped at the sight.

"…They've been like that since the start…"

* * *

><p>Tenten and Neji worked hard as they stood close together by the table, paper strips quickly forming a paper chain under their fast moving fingers.<p>

Behind them stood Ino who was carefully pinning ribbons to the walls in a multitude of colours. Neji glanced back at her, seeing the sight of her tongue poking out as Ino concentrated.

Looking to his left, Neji stopped his chain and rolled his eyes at the annoying boy that had been lumped with them.

"Kiba, please just sit to the side," Neji almost pleaded as he saw a far too familiar sight; Kiba tangled in many colours of ribbon.

"I- will- escape!" he grunted in return.

So much for pretty decorations.

* * *

><p>"Ok minna. Well done. Fu will be arriving any moment now, so take your places!" Naruto whispered to their team.<p>

Nods came from all around as the lights were turned off (Gaara positioned sand next to the switch for when Fu walked in) and everyone found a hiding place. Naruto joined her amazing boyfriend behind the couch quickly as the clock chimed seven.

It was time.

* * *

><p>Fu strode confidently towards the door. It was shut but not locked, just like how Naruto left it if she was allowed in.<p>

Slightly confused by the lack of lights on in the building, she pushed the door open none-the-less to see…

* * *

><p>Hope u like! Dedicated to lovelydragonfly for being an amazing person in general, and in honour of her birthday! All clap please!<p> 


	23. What now?

Chapter 23- What now?

"SURPRISE!" Fu heard like a horn in her ear as she entered the now dazzling bright room. She blinked.

Naruto stepped up in front of her, hands still intertwined cutely with Gaara's, and said with a large grin

"Happy Birthday Fu-chan!"

Fu smiled softly, and then it grew wider as she looked around the room. There were paper chains attached neatly to the wall, and ribbons strung prettily around the walls- wait- why were there ribbons dangling at random points off the ceiling?

"…Um, guys? Who did the ribbons?" she asked with a quick look around. Ino sighed and stepped forwards.

"I strung them up; Kiba strung himself up," she explained with a hit to the back of said boy's head.

"Oi! Ino!" he shouted in surprise, rubbing his sore head.

"You deserved it," Ino retorted, giving one slap back for good measure. Now she could call it quits.

Kiba pouted at the negative attention, and sat in the corner, peering backwards with sad eyes as the party started without him. Maybe the mushrooms could be grown later…

Oh, who was he kidding.

"Don't start the party without me!" he yelled happily, launching himself into the middle of their little group.

Kiba flew high up, in a perfect arc, preparing to crowd surf with his friends when he came back down, but suddenly he felt cold.

He looked down.

Seventeen chibi faces stared up at him in unison, blank expressions covering them as Kiba finally saw where he was falling to.

The cake.

The big, green cake with multiple candles burning happily on top of it which his crush had spent so long preparing.

Damn.

Everyone collectively winced as he _squished_ through the cake, and then the table, leaving a nice Kiba-sized hole in both.

His head popped up again from where he had fallen under the table.

"Oi! Stop laughing at me, kisame!" he yelled, a big glob of cake in his hands which he lobbed without a second thought at the hysterical group. It landed happily on the head of Fu.

She shook and trembled, bangs covering her eyes as it dripped slowly down onto her tanned face and trickled down to her mouth. Naruto snickered at the girl, her voice loud in the silence that had fallen.

Suddenly, Fu stomped forwards and grabbed a handful of cake, throwing it as hard as she could at the thoughtless boy. Naruto winced as a full on food fight started. Why had she decided to hold it at her apartment again? It was going to take forever to clear this up…

Needless to say, it was the messiest party that any of them, including the three senseis, had ever been to.

* * *

><p>Fu shrieked one last time for good luck, and collapsed onto Naruto's bed with a weak giggle. It had been super fun, even if she had barely known the people there because Naruto had been too busy snogging Gaara to remember to invite her teammates that were there with her.<p>

Not that she actually wanted Yukio with her (the party pooper) but Katsu could have been quite fun… not to mention it was a shame that none of the jinchuriki could come along.

Fu knew that they'd have a hard time explaining that.

Which meant that…

"FU-CHAN! Now that everybody else isn't paying attention, I wanna show you something!" Naruto beamed, way too close for the green haired girl's liking with her normal disregard for personal space.

…Naruto was _definitely_ up to something.

* * *

><p>"Yes Naru-chan? What is so important that I have to miss part of my own birthday party to hear about?" Fu asked exasperatedly; having Naruto as a friend was a bit like keeping a mine turtle for a pet sometimes. One wrong move and bang! Everything exploded (quite too literally in Naruto's case, Fu thought).<p>

"It is…" Naruto started, grinning widely and completely ignoring the weariness in her green haired friend's voice.

"Orochimaru!" Naruto smiled wildly.

Fu jumped. "WHY DO YOU HAVE OROCHIMARU!" she screeched in disbelief.

"Shh!" Naruto whispered loudly, leaping forward and covering Fu's mouth.

"I captured him, and now I don't know what to do with him!" Naruto told her, slowly falling back onto the bed.

"I thought that you were going to leave his body on the grounds for the senseis to find!" Fu responded unhappily.

"I was, but then he was a bit too strong to just defeat like that and not have a minion follow him," Naruto groaned and covered her eyes with an arm.

"Fu? What do I do now?" she asked.

"Naruto? What do you mean?" Fu responded sharply as she turned to look at the blonde who was laid spread out on her back across the bed.

"It's just like; now I have a boyfriend but only a few real friends, no enemies that I have to get more power to defeat, a life here where no-one knows who I really am and lies going on all over the place. I mean, I don't even know what I want to do with my life," Naruto answered dully.

Fu frowned. This was all true… but what should they do now?

"Fu… I'm tired of all the lies. Can't I just reveal who I really am?" Naruto questioned, drawing her head to the side to look at the green haired girl. Fu rather thought that Naruto's piercing cerulean eyes were shining with tears.

"Oh Naruto… I- I don't know," Fu answered honestly.

"I wonder Fu… should I stay here? What is there for me in Konoha? Maybe I should just leave… I could stay with you or Gaara instead. It would be so much fun! But then… I don't want to be classed as a missing nin even if it would only be a D rank one,"

Fu stayed silent, just leaning forward to hug Naruto gently.

Neither of them knew what to do.

* * *

><p>Ok guys, I am back!<p>

I know, I took forever, but I am back now and plan to have a writing day tomorrow… even though this chappie was planned to be written yesterday, but then it was Passover, and all of our relatives came over and ended up staying until midnight… so here it is! I have a vague plan for the story, but if anyone has any ideas to add, please PM or review them! As I said, it is only a vague plan…

Oh, and to 'Sparklewillshine' who posted

'I REALLY FUCKING HATE FEMNARU! IT JUST CHANGES NARUTO CHARACTER ALL TOGETHER! DAMN IT STOP DOING FEMALE NARUTO! HE IS FUCKING MALE GOD DAMN IT! MALE X MALE IS GREAT BETTER THAN STRAIGHT BITCHES THAT CANT SEEM TO GET THEIR MIND TOGETHER TO EVEN GET NARUTO GENDER STRAIGHT!'

Glad to know your view. If you can't be nice, you don't have to read it. I wrote in the summary that Naruto is a girl; it is _my _story and my choice about what I put in it. I really appreciate the views of my readers (I do want people to enjoy reading it!) but at the end of the day I'm not going to change such a fundamental part of the story. Next time, read the summaries before you come and bitch at me for writing my story my way.


	24. Action!

Chapter 24- Action! 

AN: Thanks to the superhuman powers of lovelydragonfly, we have come up with a fairly decent plot line for the next 20 or so chapters. Oh yeah, before I forget, KnH is planned to go on to about 70k, so I'm only about half way through! Plenty more to come- hopefully!

Anything after chapter 40 ish is still being hashed up and bounced off of each other like bullets though. In the end, it might be a poll that is the decider!

But no matter. For now, thanks to all of my reviewers, and enjoy!

* * *

><p>It was the early hours of the morning, and the majority of the Konoha had settled down for sleep. Barring the occasional party goers (now mainly just drunkards) and late returning ninja, everyone was sound asleep and recuperating for the next day.<p>

It was no different in the peaceful house of a certain Uzumaki, where the walls were still caked in… food substance. Naruto blearily glared at the wall from her rather comfortable position on the bed, underneath Fu's legs and snuggled up warmly with Gaara. Most of the guests had gone home, or (in Kakashi, Asuma and Kurenai's case) had collapsed in a corner.

Who knew why the senseis had stayed?

Naruto's lips twisted into a grimace as she imagined the most likely reason for them to be there was because they had got so drunk they couldn't find their way home.

Although, speaking of drink… where had Kakashi nicked that barrel of wine from? It certainly wasn't hers…

Regardless of her nice, warm position swaddled underneath the layers of duvet and crushed against Gaara's chest which positively radiated heat, Naruto dug out an arm from the pile. It flopped around a little bit, but the girl was _fairly_ certain that it was hers and not anyone else's.

It did what she wanted it to do though, so it must have been hers, and as the fingers formed a weak seal a second Naruto appeared.

This Naruto was also looking how the girl felt; mussed up hair, wide yawns and her real form belied the lack of concentration that she had used. The clone gave a weary salute to the original, and wandered across the room to the corner.

There, it squatted by the head of the snoring Kakashi and reached out slowly… slowly… steady, there it went… and the mask fell down around his neck.

Immediately she flew into action. Her sensei's hands were tied behind his back and he was blindfolded so that if he woke up Naruto's real form wouldn't be seen, and her secret would be protected.

A quick flash went off as the camera took a picture of his real face, and the blonde whipped the blindfold off for a second photo.

Real Naruto had a devilish grin on as the clone trotted back across the room and handing over the camera. It disappeared quickly, absorbed into a seal, and Naruto two bowed solemnly to the bed, before disappearing herself.

The blonde sighed and wondered her arm back underneath the covers awkwardly. It hit something, and Gaara mumbled quietly. He opened his eyes and saw Naruto's sheepish expression a couple of inches away from him.

She apologised quietly, and explained the photo situation and all the pranks and blackmail it could work for. He smiled. Kakashi got what was coming to him for getting smashed at the _underage_ party.

Meanwhile though, there was something he wanted to do…

* * *

><p>Fu opened her eyes slowly. She was on top of the covers and was unfortunate enough to be over Naruto and Gaara. Who were doing mushy stuff and <em>kissing<em>.

"Oi! Guys!" Fu whispered hurriedly at the pair. They broke apart quickly, and Naruto blushed.

"Oops… Gomen," she whispered back, but the green haired girl knew that she was trying not to laugh.

"Fine, fine… do what you want… just put up silencing seals, and remember that the senseis are over there," Fu giggled, jumping off the bed and dragging a cushion into the kitchen.

Naruto blushed harder, knowing what Fu meant and mentally imagining Kakashi waking to find them doing… that. It would destroy both her secret and her dignity, and Naruto immediately vowed to check where he was before letting down her seal again.

That would be very embarrassing indeed.

Moaning internally at loss of the warmth now, the blonde stood up and grabbed Gaara's hand out of the bed. With a surprising amount of strength the girl yanked the two of them out of the open window and they hopped over rooftops towards the arena where the third tests were being held today.

It wouldn't do to be caught sleeping in the same bed, let alone kissing.

Although it would give her perverted godfather a field day…

* * *

><p>Jiraiya stood tall and mighty on top of the Hokage's head. He looked around at his village, having not been here for a year or two, and…<p>

His eyes bulged lecherously as he realised that he could see the women's onsen from here.

"Ooh!" he cried happily, blood leaking out of a nostril as his ever present notebook was whipped into his hand and the white haired man started scribbling in it, despite not taking his eyes off of the view once.

And he definitely wasn't looking at old memories anymore.

"The wonders of the female body! I will teach you them soon, Naruto!" Jiraiya shouted cheerfully.

* * *

><p>In an arena far below, Naruto sneezed. They had just finished the preliminary tests, which had (as Kiba so eloquently put it) sucked. It wasn't that it was hard (Naruto had easily beaten the dog boy, although she made it look harder) but it was an extra test, which meant that there had been four tests, not three.<p>

Naruto frowned as she evaluated the opponents left. There were seven others who had got through, and they were Gaara and Fu (obviously), Neji (who's match Naruto had hated. How dare he shatter Hinata's self confidence like that?), Sasuke (unfortunately), Shino (expected), Shikamaru (although he was too lazy to do much in his match), Temari (who Naruto rooted for out of terror- she was a demon when it came to protecting her family) and Rock Lee (who she liked but he was definitely way too obsessed with youth. And what was up with the spandex? He had even been at the party in it).

Hopefully she would get Sasuke or Neji. They were the easiest to start off with, and the most fun to beat down.

"2" Naruto called out as she selected it from the box.

"5"Gaara said from beside her.

"8"Neji proclaimed emotionlessly.

"1" Sasuke said arrogantly, his nose in the air as he realised who he would be fighting.

"4"Shikamaru yawned.

"6" Fu yelled, jumping up and down on the spot and causing Katsu to sweatdrop from the crowd. The girl was way too excited over this.

"3" Temari smirked.

"7"Shino mumbled into his collar.

"These are your match-ups then. Sasuke versus Naruto, Temari versus Shikamaru, Gaara versus Fu and Shino versus Neji. You have a month to prepare for your tournament. Good luck!" Genma exclaimed, senbon still in his mouth.

Naruto smiled and turned to Gaara and Fu. They had a lot of preparing to do.

* * *

><p>"So," Naruto started, letting go of Fu's hand. She had grabbed her best friend and her boy friend from the arena, thinking that they could start on their training for the final test.<p>

"So," Fu responded, playfully pouting at the blonde, then glancing meaningfully at Gaara and Naruto's entwined hands.

Naruto blushed, and glared at her friend.

Gaara stood oblivious.

"So…" Naruto began again, hoping that someone else would comment on what they could do to train and not leave her hanging there again.

Fu smirked.

Gaara stood oblivious.

Naruto sighed in frustration and face palmed. "Remind me why I hang out with you guys again?"

* * *

><p>Jiraiya finally came back to his senses as the sun rose higher in the sky and all of the lovely women left the baths to get to their homes or workplaces.<p>

It wasn't fair. Why did they all go?

…Wait a minute… there was one curvy girl just entering the baths. The white haired sannin grinned, zooming in the binoculars on her.

However, much to his disappointment, there was a large tree just in front of her.

It looked like he'd have to go closer in order to peek properly; and so Jiraiya left the top of the sand sculpture and started wending his way back down to town in order to watch the beautiful girl.

Naruto wasn't going anywhere after all.

* * *

><p>Kakashi frowned as he scanned the area. Naruto had passed nicely, defeating the overconfident Kiba with a new technique that the man hadn't seen before. It was rather surprising; both Naruto having a jutsu he didn't know (he was his sensei, and also knew over a thousand jutsus but had never seen that one before) and also that Naruto had beaten his classmate.<p>

Sure, Naruto was enthusiastic, but he normally couldn't do anything properly. When had that changed?

"Kakashi? Where did you say that your noisy little gaki was?" Ebisu asked snootily, walking around the edge to where the masked ninja stood.

"Hmm… I believe he's outside," Kakashi concluded with a final sweep of the hall. Naruto was nowhere to be seen, and so he must have left earlier whilst the silver haired jounin wasn't watching.

"Just take me to him and I can train him in the ways of being a shinobi. I know all of the shortcuts-" Ebisu declared, pushing up his glasses with a hand.

"Why don't you tell Naruto that?" Kakashi requested, and strolled outside into the bright sunshine.

* * *

><p>Ok, so bye bye lemon! I agree with the reviews saying that they are a bit young, but I have a side fic going up with a NaruShika lemon on (I love that pairing too) and so please check it out! Only if u like lemons though… u have been warned! Thanks for all the lovely reviews actually- 7 for one chaper- so I am happy!<p> 


	25. Pride, betrayal and something unexpected

Chapter 25- Pride, betrayal and _that_

Ok, so the stuff I was saying about having a plot line? Yeah. That went completely out the window. I will play this by ear, so ideas appreciated (and thanks again lovelydragonfly for the attempt at creating a plot line with me! It was a gallant effort ;-))

* * *

><p>Naruto beamed proudly, revelling in the feeling of surprising everyone (she had seen Kakashi's expression- what she wouldn't give to have a photo of it in the moment Kiba was beaten) alongside her two best friends.<p>

Grabbing their hands, she whirled around in circles, not caring about the fact that she was revealing her super strength in front of everyone they knew. Gaara sighed and rolled his eyes in defeat whilst Fu had squealed with her, before catching sight of Katsu behind her.

"Katsu!" Fu yelled, blushing slightly at the sight of her beaming teammate. Naruto noticed immediately and mentally sent a thought out to her friend.

**"Ooh… So I was right…" **Naruto smirked slightly. A few people behind, Katsu started wading forwards through the crush of people. Next to the blonde girl, Fu blushed a deeper red than the faint pink that had been colouring her cheeks earlier.

**"Don't you dare tell Yugito!" **Fu exclaimed with a frown.

**"Tell her what? That our dear little Fu-chan has her eyes on the prize? No… I would never," **Naruto blinked innocently, radiating sincerity.

Fu growled. **"I don't believe you… but if you do, then I'll tell her about ****_that,_****" **The green haired girl retaliated, grinning in malicious triumph.

** "You wouldn't…" **Naruto answered in horror.

**"Oh, I would…" **Fu answered, liking her new position of power.

**"But then I'd have no choice but to tell her what you've been saying for weeks about her and Utakata!" **Naruto answered slyly, putting on a mask of defeat.

**"You've been saying that too!"** The Nanabi jinchuriki accused, a finger pointed at Naruto.

**"Yeah, but she doesn't know that,"**

**"I'll tell her about the pink paint,"**

**"Then we'd both be in trouble,"**

**"Then… I'll tell her about where I found you and Gaara this morning!"**

**"Ha! Not our fault you decided to lie on top of us!" **

**"Guys. Urusai." **Gaara finally cut in, rubbing his head.

They blinked, suddenly realising that people were staring on all sides at the silent argument.

Oh, and there was Kakashi-sensei, laughing at their little predicament.

Naruto and Fu sweatdropped, identical deadpanning expressions on their faces. Who knew that people were entertained by so little?

* * *

><p>Standing slightly to the side of Gaara, Katsu risked a muttered comment. "Are they always like this?"<p>

Nodding grimly, the red haired jinchuriki answered him. "Yes. Yes, they are,"

"Right,"

* * *

><p>Exiting the building, Kakashi was surprised to feel a strong wave of chakra wash over him, specifically Naruto's chakra.<p>

Curious if it was the same thing that the three genin had done in Ibiki's test, Kakashi focused in on it and entered a rather amusing conversation… again.

**"-tell Yugito!" **the first voice was yelling. If Kakashi was not very much mistaken, that was the green haired jinchuriki who Naruto was friendly with… Fuji?

**"Tell her what? That our dear little Fu-chan has her eyes on the prize? No… I would never," **Ah, no, it was Fu. And now it was certainly an argument between Fu and Naruto (he recognised the second voice even if it seemed quite high pitched… how had he not noticed that the first time?

A growl came through, and Kakashi winced, walking on. **"I don't believe you… but if you do, then I'll tell her about ****_that,_****"**

** "You wouldn't…" **this was interesting now. What made his cute little genin sound so horrified? What was _that?_

**"Oh, I would…" **Fu answered.

**"But then I'd have no choice but to tell her what you've been saying for weeks about her and Utakata!" ** The silver haired jounin frowned. Those names again. They were familiar; if only he could remember where from.

**"You've been saying that too!"**.

**"Yeah, but she doesn't know that,"**

**"I'll tell her about the pink paint,"**

**"Then we'd both be in trouble,"**

**"Then… I'll tell her about where I found you and Gaara this morning!"**

**"Ha! Not our fault you decided to lie on top of us!" **Wait, backtrack. What had the couple been doing… with Fu on top of them?! He shook his head vigorously- that was an image he had never wanted or needed to see.

**"Guys. Urusai." **Kakashi laughed out loud this time. That was definitely Gaara, Naruto's boyfriend (which was still a bit odd, even though shinobi were open to this kind of thing) who had quite efficiently shut off the conversation in time for him and Ebisu to arrive.

* * *

><p>By the onsen, Jiraiya finally caught his breath against the stone wall at the side. Maybe he was getting a little old for this sort of thing…<p>

"No! I am Jiraiya, the legendary toad sannin and super-pervert of Konoha! Mountains tremble under my might, oceans-"

"Shut up!" a voice screamed from the other side of the wall, and a rather heavy stone fell with a loud thud onto his head.

Dazed, he stumbled away down the street and hoped he didn't crash into anyone. Apparently _that_ blossoming flower was vicious and had sharp thorns growing on every side.

* * *

><p>"Naruto, I would like to introduce to you to your teacher for this month," Kakashi smiled.<p>

Ebisu stepped out from behind him, and said to the boy "I do not believe that you deserve to be trained by the best of the best, but I will attempt to teach you, little gaki, all of the short cuts for power,"

Naruto ignored the conceited man in front of her, and locked eyes with her sensei.

"Sensei? Why are you not teaching me?" she asked, using every inch of her iron self control not to explode with questions at the man whom she had considered a friend, and one who deserved respect.

"I can't, I'm afraid. I have to teach Sasuke," Kakashi answered apologetically, knowing that whilst Naruto was an enthusiastic child, he simply wouldn't be able to keep up with the high level training that he was going to be going through with the young Uchiha.

"Oh. Okay then," Naruto stated, walking away from the impromptu gathering slowly. Gaara looked expressionlessly at her retreating back, a hint of sadness expressed in his eyes, and he grabbed Fu's arm with a small shake of red hair.

"But gaki! How dare you walk away from me when I, the great Ebisu, have offered to teach you!" the snobbish man called in outrage.

"I decline. If sensei won't teach me, then I'll find myself a proper teacher who will respect me and teach me things worth learning," Naruto replied in an even, well measured tone.

Kakashi sighed. That could have gone a whole lot better… and if he was being honest with himself, not a lot worse.

* * *

><p><strong>"Kit? Aare you alright?"<strong> the worried voice of Kyuubi fell into Naruto's head as she walked around the corner of the street from her ex-sensei Kakashi, his rubbishy friend and the two best friends she'd ever know.

**"Kyu-chan! I haven't spoken with you in ages!" **Naruto answered with a fake smile.

**"Kit. Do not try to change the topic,"** the kitsune scolded, disliking the whole situation through and through.

**"I'm sorry, Kyu. I just… don't know,"** the blonde girl admitted truthfully.

Her thoughts ticked slowly, feeling betrayed by one of the few people that she had liked and respected, and felt herself to be liked and cared for in return.

Naruto felt sad and regretful at the loss of this friendship, but at the same time her thoughts were slightly darker. Rage and anger were starting to swirl through her veins at the latest betrayal. How dare he!

How dare he abuse her trust like this! He would pay… Naruto would make him pay. If it was the last thing she did, she would make that teme regret what he had done.

In any way she could.

* * *

><p>Okay, so a twist there! It just… sort of happened. Although, with that, there is a slight plot back in place as to reasons for things to happen, so I'm glad it did, if a bit shocked. Is it possible to be shocked by your own story?<p>

Oh, and thanks so much to guest, who left me a really nice review! And here u r- I wrote another chapter. I hope u find it awesome too!


	26. I guess you could say that

Chapter 26- I guess you could say that

Jiraiya stumbled further down the almost deserted street; birds still flying in circles around his head.

That stone was just plain _nasty_.

Chuckling quietly under his breath, the white-haired sannin thought about how that could be incorporated into a real battle. Surely there would be some use for it? After all, he wouldn't be able to fight right now if something or someone came at him…

Suddenly, there was a sharp pain in his chest and the man staggered backwards and fell splayed flat on his back in an extremely undignified manner.

"That really would be an effective way to fight," Jiraiya mused out loud, staring down his chest at a shock of bright blonde hair which was the source of the unexpected fall.

"Naruto?" he asked, fairly certain who the culprit was.

In confirmation to his question, Naruto lifted his head up and beamed at his sensei.

"Ero-sennin!"

Jiraiya let his head collapse back down with a thud, the joy of finding Naruto tempered by his use of the nickname which the sannin _hated._

Surely the boy could at least call him a super pervert.

* * *

><p>Naruto grinned wider, snuggling her head back into her adopted family member's chest. Ero-sennin hadn't said he was coming back! And now that he was here…<p>

"Ero-sennin! Will you help me train for the final exam?" Naruto grinned widely, hoping for more training. She had continued with her secret escapades twice a week; killing off the nastiest cowards she could find. The bingo book that Itachi had gifted her with a while ago was invaluable in learning both who she was going after that night, and what abilities they had.

So far, she had managed to kill 20 A-rank, 16 B-rank, 2 C-rank, 6 S-rank and two SS-rank missing nin. Naruto knew that she was about S-rank in talents, but considering her smaller size she had avoided more of the taijutsu specialists. The girl had also had only the time in a single night to track down and kill her foe and so Naruto had also gone for enemies seen nearby Konoha and occasionally slightly further out into the surrounding countries, although she was wary that if she fought a tough enemy in another land then she might not have the energy to get home before day.

It was a life lived on the metaphorical knife edge.

But with Jiraiya here, Naruto would be able to train much more to the standards she should be working at, and spend time with him as well. This was a win-win situation.

"Please, ero-sennin?" Naruto asked again, putting on puppy eyes in the hope that he would agree.

Jiraiya sighed. "I don't know… I'm here on information that a major group called the Akatsuki are planning to attack, not just for pleasure,"

Naruto jumped up hurriedly. A group powerful enough to worry her sensei would be a good thing to train for, and she knew that she could help ero-sennin in the fight.

"Ero-sennin? I promise not to be too much of a bother. If you train me some more, then I can help you fight when they come. You know I can! I'm not a liability, especially not if I train hard for the next month," Naruto pleaded, knowing that with Jiraiya around she wouldn't be able to do her work as Kami no Hoshi, and so this would be a much better way to stay sharp.

"…Fine then gaki," Jiraiya decided. After all, it would be easier to fight with Naruto at his side and the genin would only be safer if he was trained.

"Yay! Thanks ero-sennin!" Naruto replied enthusiastically, grabbing his arm and yanking him back to his feet.

Jiraiya winced at the grip. Minato's son was strong.

Ignoring the wince, or perhaps simply oblivious to it, the blonde held onto his arm and dragged the white haired man behind him back the way that she had come.

Although, her and Gaara's relationship shouldn't be mentioned yet. Who knew what would happen?

* * *

><p>Kakashi watched on, silent, as Naruto walked off and his boyfriend (now that had been a surprise. Minato's son really wasn't much like him, despite the physical likeness) grabbed the green-haired girl's arm to stop her from following.<p>

Maybe Naruto would just need a minute to cool down, and would return soon…

He sighed and waited for him to come back. Ebisu had left as soon as Naruto had dismissed him so rudely, with a stiff "I will not train that ungrateful brat. Tell him to apologise before he asks for my help. I will consider it then,"

Kakashi had just waved him off absent-mindedly. Maybe it had been a mistake to ask Ebisu to help.

However, where exactly had Naruto gone?

The jounin thought for a moment, then opted to walk towards the alley that Naruto had disappeared down, but before he got there, Naruto skipped back into the clearing, grabbed Fu and Gaara, and carried on happily, the two of them reluctantly following in her wake...

Kakashi blinked. Was that…?

Rubbing his eyes hard, the man strolled off in the other direction. It had been a long day, and no doubt he was just seeing things.

After all, what would the spy master, Jiraiya of the sannin, be doing in Konoha with Naruto?

* * *

><p>"So gaki, what have you learnt over the time I've been away?" Jiraiya questioned cheerfully, throwing a quick glance at Fu, who sat swinging her legs on a tree stump, and Gaara, who was still standing and sending suspicious looks over to the sannin on regular occasion. "And who are your friends?"<p>

"Come on ero-sennin, you know who they are! This is Fu, jinchuriki of the Nanabi, and my best friend, nd this is Gaara, jinchuriki of the Ichibi, and my b- other best friend," Naruto introduced, beaming outwardly but sighing in relief on the inside at the near slip.

**"Yeah kit, real smart. You do know that he's accustomed to reading body language, right?" **Kyuubi snorted loudly.

**"Hey, it'll be a good opportunity to improve my lying skills though! Aren't you always telling me to train with masters?" **the blonde girl retorted.

**"Well, I suppose that for a supposed master he hasn't found out your secret yet…" **the kitsune shrugged.

Naruto ignored her furry friend, and answered the first part of her godfather's question.

"Well, I have entered the chuunin exams and we had the prelims of the third test today…"

"Oh? And how did you do? Did you beat them hands down?" Jiraiya chuckled, knowing the answer.

"Of course!" Naruto responded.

She had definitely done that…

_*Flashback*_

_"And…Hajime!" the proctor called out, bringing his hand to his mouth and coughing a few times._

_Naruto grinned wolfishly, unnerving Kiba with sharp, pointed teeth. The boy stepped back, and then recovered his courage and nodded to his small puppy, Akamaru._

_"Let's go, Akamaru!" Kiba yelled, running through a series of hand signs and yelling "Gatsuga!" _

_Akamaru grew taller, hair shrinking and body lengthening as he took on Kiba's appearance. The two duplicates charged forwards in a cloud of dust, whirling frantically at Naruto._

_She pretended to panic, and dodged the drill in the nick of time before running around the arena like a headless chicken._

_Kiba and Akamaru chased her, but Naruto always managed to just dodge the jutsu before it hit._

_Inside her head, Kyuubi cheered wildly. __**"Go Naruto-kun! Save our souls from eternal damnation caused by overload of dog! Rip the brat to pieces! Come on girly, you can do it!"**_

_Naruto paled as she heard her bijuu's happy death threats, and shook her head roughly._

**_"…That's nice and all, but I don't want to rip a Konoha genin to pieces,"_**_ the blonde stated, making the wise and ancient Kyuubi retreat into a corner to sulk._

_That was Kyuubi all over._

**_"Thousands of years old physically, with the mental age of a three year old," _**_Naruto muttered under her breath, turning her attention back to the match._

_Kiba was still dancing around with his pet dog and so Naruto decided to use a very effective weapon on the dog._

_"Katon Gokakyu no jutsu!" Naruto yelled, sending a smirk to a shocked Sasuke as fire pooled out of her mouth and launched towards Kiba. She kept it up for five seconds longer than she knew Sasuke's personal record was, and then stopped the jutsu. _

_Kiba fell down to the arena floor, singed from the flames that had surrounded him on all sides but hadn't harmed him much properly. All it seemed to do was hurt his legs enough that he couldn't stand up again yet._

_Naruto had, somehow, in a twisted fashion, won this match._

_"Winner, Uzuzmaki Naruto!" Hayate called out to a silent crowd._

_*Flashback over*_

"Yeah, I guess you could say that I really kicked his ass…"


	27. Naruto, why do you have breasts?

Hi minna! Ok, so I have returned for the next chappie, but I'm sorry that it took me three entire weeks to get this up!

Basically, I had exams two weeks ago so I spent the first week away revising, the second week doing and then on the weekend it was one of my friend's birthday, and there was a party and sleepover, followed by a day in London with my family and a trip the theatre (it was awesome!).

This week I ran out of ideas (stupid as that sounds) and so I wrote a Attack on Titan fic cos there aren't enough of them (Levi is so cool! I got slightly obsessed… ended up watching the series in one night) and then Friday night was bivvy (camping without a tent after a 10 mile hike in the dark), Saturday my grandparents came and I had to be sociable, and then another best friend had a sleepover (which again was fun!) and then today we went to Thorpe park! Saw is awesome, as well as Stealth, Swarm, Rush, Vortex, X, and the extremely wet Tidal wave.

In fact, I loved it so much I plan to include a short omake at the end of this about Naruto at Thorpe park.

…I've also got back into the HP fandom , and discovered the wonders of Fullmetal alchemist! Thank you whoever recommended it (was it u Diamondera?) and even better, Anbu at Hogwarts. So. Awesome.

Oh, and any Merlin fans here? If so, will u read 'ten feet under' by GraceLilly, and anyone looking for another Naruto fanfic could check out 'Could it be real' by Aleri. I'm betaing these two awesome stories, so if anyone will check them out…

Chapter 37- Naruto, why do you have breasts?

Jiriaya grinned happily.

"That's my Naruto-kun! So then, what shall we practice today?" he yelled, striking a pose in front of her.

She sighed, and smiled. The confusion radiating off of Gaara and Fu was practically tangible in the air around them as they tried to puzzle out who her sensei was and whether he knew her secret or not.

**"In fairness, I think I'd be pretty confused too if you suddenly became chummy with a random stranger,"** Kyuubi commented.

**"…But you know who Jiraiya is…" **Naruto answered, confused.

Kyuubi snorted. **"Hypothetically, kit, hypothetically," **

**"Oh," **Naruto said sheepishly, embarrassed at missing the point.

"Naruto? Who is this?" Fu hissed into her ear.

The blonde jumped violently, having not noticed her sneaking up from behind.

"This is my sensei, Jiraiya, or as I like to call him, ero-sennin," Naruto explained in a slightly louder voice to both of her friends.

**"And he doesn't know my big secret either," **Naruto added on telepathically so that Jiraiya wouldn't over hear this part of the conversation.

They nodded back, and Fu wandered back to the tree, plonking herself down with a yawn. Gaara stayed standing next to her; protective but hopefully not to the degree that Jiraiya would notice, since if he thought anything was up with them then they would get the horror to beat all horrors.

The Talk.

Naruto shuddered. She never wanted to have the Talk with him again. Itachi-nii had been bad enough, and then ero-sennin had decided, unaware that it had already been explained to her, about 'adult life' and 'how to be safe'.

It was just unfortunate that he'd given her the version that boys listened to.

If she never had to listen to a talk on the wonders of puberty and what it did in boys, it would be too soon.

* * *

><p>The days passed slowly for the first week. She could only meet with Gaara at night time, and so the days ticked away like a watched kettle with Jiraiya teaching her a whole new load of jutsus.<p>

They had settled into a new routine where Gaara snuck over to her house (well, apartment…room) and stayed there the night with her, and then sparred with her in the training ground before Jiraiya came. The sannin didn't know that they did this, and no one was about to tell him.

The second week had, in comparison, zoomed by as Jiraiya gave her more and more time to master the jutsus on her own and so Gaara could come and meet her during the day, where they could spar, train and kiss on their own schedule.

In fact, the month was going brilliantly until the first day of the third week.

* * *

><p>"Futon Fujin no jutsu!" Naruto yelled out, forming uma, saru and tora in quick succession and blowing a cloud of dust into the air.<p>

Gaara narrowed his eyes, dodging out of the dust cloud quickly.

"Suna shigure!" he called back, sending a cloud of sand cascading over where he thought she was. Naruto danced lithely out of the way, yelling out "Futon Tatsu no Oshigoto!"

A strong wind blew the dust cloud over Gaara again and he closed his eyes reflexively to stop the dust from falling into them.

Unseen, Naruto smirked and created a small series of hand seals.

"Katon Gokkakyu no jutsu," she whispered softly, blowing the small stream of pale flames into the ash. It lit up with a loud bang, sending Gaara hurtling to the ground or get hit by the unexpected fire.

He rolled to his feet, readying his stance for when Naruto came, but froze.

She had worked her way behind him, and now had a dagger from her sleeve pressed against his throat, the cold metal harshly kissing his pale skin.

"I win," the blonde whispered, breath brushing against his ear as he shivered in pleasure. His girlfriend was one dangerous woman.

"Do you?" he whispered back, twisting to face her with a new trick.

He caressed her cheek softly, then transformed his body to sand and drifted over to another spot, changing his body back again.

She rolled her eyes at another way he had weaselled out of her grasp this morning, and Gaara smiled a small smile back.

"If that's how you want it…shall we get serious?"

* * *

><p>Jiraiya stood open mouthed at the edge of the training grounds.<p>

He'd known that Naruto was good, and that he had surpassed the expectations that Jiraiya had set for him long ago, but this good?

When had he become this good?

_"When you left the boy alone for a year without any reason"_ the little voice in his head reminded him slyly.

_"Shut up,"_ he thought back at it, watching the cloud of dust explode as Naruto sent a ball of fire at it.

That was another thing; Naruto had never been so good at combining his jutsus before. The year in Konoha alone had apparently taught him a lot.

A smile crept slowly across the white haired man's face as he watched the battle proudly, seeing both the Kazekage's son Gaara (who had been hanging around Naruto quite a lot) and his own godson fight on at least an A-level skill, both evading and returning the flurry of attacks sent their ways.

Naruto had the edge though; his chakra wells being the size they were and his agility playing a big role in the battle as Gaara manually blocked attacks whilst the blonde danced out of their way.

They really shouldn't be genin, not them, they were at least chuunin level, probably jounin standard… heck, they might be able to make kage within a few years-

Red chakra started to bubble across the field.

Jiraiya immediately leapt into action as he saw the deadly youkai leak out from Naruto's unwilling body, noticing the sand body forming around Gaara a moment later as he whipped out a brush and seal paper.

Ten seconds was all it took for him to create a hasty seal (but he knew how much that could cost in a real fight- it was why he had never made it his main way of fighting, despite his mastery of it- and fling it into the middle of the field.

Jiraiya never noticed the purple chakra shielding Naruto from the evil affects of the red chakra, and he never saw the blue eyes of Shukaku's turn green as emeralds.

All he saw was the evil way the demons had manipulated their containers into letting them out.

But it was all okay now. The seal would stop all jutsus in their tracks; regardless of where their power was coming from, but it took an extortionate amount of chakra to keep up and the man already knew that his stores were draining rapidly.

Taking a glance around the field, he realised with a sigh of relief that the youkai cloaks were gone, and that both children had returned to normal.

Yup, Naruto had normal blonde hair, blue eyes, whiskers, purple top…

_Wait, what?_

Examining Naruto again, Jiraiya easily saw the difference between the two forms that he'd had now, and earlier. The form that he had now after the seal was thrown down…

"Naruto, would you like to tell me why you now have breasts?"

* * *

><p>HEHEHE!<p>

Cliffy for you guys who waited so patiently for my return J

Can people please tell me whether they want Jiraiya to hate Naruto or forgive her?

And also, as promised, an omake!

* * *

><p>Naruto frowned as she looked up at the ride. It was tall, and the motors whirred loudly from where they were standing in the queue.<p>

"Gaara? Are you sure this is safe?" she asked, watching the boat in front of her reach the top of the slope. Screams from the carriage were audible from where they stood in the hut to the side, safe from the spray that attacked those in the car mercilessly.

"Yes, Naruto, for the fifth time I know it is safe," Gaara answered, rolling his eyes at the girl next to him.

She frowned some more, and snuggled into his side securely.

"Please leave your bags over here, and sit inside the carriage. Arms and legs must be kept inside at all times, and the safety bar should be tight on your legs," a mechanical voice said as the gates opened, and Gaara pushed Naruto forwards.

She whimpered slightly, drawing back again, and Gaara sighed.

"Naruto, please just get in," he said impatiently, and picked his girlfriend up, placing her in the wet boat.

"Ew, it's all wet!" Naruto shrieked, standing up quickly.

"I know it is, now sit down!" Gaara answered and pulled her onto the seat. The safety bar clicked in place and trapped the two of them in their places, where Naruto's eyes widened and she hugged Gaara tightly.

The cart lurched forwards and began to climb up the slope.

**"I'm not a chicken, I'm not a chicken, I'm not a chicken,"** Naruto chanted silently, looking fearfully at the ground that was getting lower and lower, further and further down.

"I know that you're not a chicken Naruto," Gaara said out loud, amusing himself at her expense.

In return, she hit him.

"Thanks"

* * *

><p>The edge of the slide came closer and closer, and Naruto suddenly found herself continuing her chant.<p>

**"I'm not a chicken, I'm not a chicken, I'm not a chicken, I'm not a-"** the blonde reached before they entire boat tilted alarmingly, and the carriage fell over the edge.

"I'M A CHICKEN!" she screamed as they fell, but Gaara grabbed her cheek and looked her in the eyes.

"If you were a chicken, would I do this?" he asked, kissing her flushed lips passionately as they fell to their doom.

She supposed not.

* * *

><p>Later, standing on a bridge with ice cream in her hands as they laughed at the people coming down the ride, Naruto realised that she had enjoyed the ride earlier. They had got a fabulous picture of the two of them surrounded by falling water, and promptly bought a key ring of it.<p>

Now they could- the sound of water getting closer brought Naruto's attention back to the present.

The present where many, many kilos of water were headed straight for them where they stood on the covered bridge.

With a squeal she jumped sideways, followed by Gaara as the wave smashed onto the deck where the had been standing. It had definitely been a good thing to mov- water poured onto her head and clothes from above.

An outraged gasp was let out as she turned to Gaara with the realisation that the roof wasn't waterproof, and that the same ride had just got her wet twice.

* * *

><p>They were finally dry, standing far behind the bridge at a safe distance this time, watching the boat crash down again.<p>

Water sprayed out again, but now Naruto smirked evilly as she saw the poor idiots on the bridge in front of them get soaked through.

That wasn't them any more.

They were safe from the nasty wat- with a horrible feeling of dread and resignation curdling in her stomach, Naruto looked up to the top of the roof.

There, over the top of the covered walkway, was a large wave of water.

It reared up like a white horse, bearing down on them maliciously, and all that Naruto could think of was

"Not again!"

* * *

><p>Omake over!<p>

Wow that was long… about the same length as the chapter… but be impressed, this story has over 40k now!

And yes, this is exactly what happened to me and my friends earlier today. Apart from the kissing on the ride, me and my poor friends were on the bridge and got soaked, then on a pathway behind it and got soaked again. Whilst laughing at the poor idiots on the bridge in front of us.

So yes. The same ride defeated us three times… I took 3 hours to dry, then had a bath and came here to write!

I will return soon though minna! Arigato for reading, and ja ne!


	28. The-title-is-too-long-for-the-bar' part

Chapter 28- The 'I'm-dumping-you-with-a-stuck-up-idiot-for-a-month-to-train-you-and then not apologise' part

…Wow. I was hoping for maybe 5 reviews, and then I would update anyway, but I got 22! That's really exciting! So, because apparently there are secret readers who decided to come out of the woodwork, I was planning to update before Germany (Mainz btw, since so many asked!) but yeah… I slightly forgot that I needed to pack, and then my plane was delayed and stuff so I got back later than expected! To make up, here comes a chapter with a bit more action than filler (nice change?! Sorry about my many fillers- they are so fun to write but it was suggested that I add more plot into it so yeah!)

Oh, and thank you to my guest reviewers- answered below cos I can't PM u guys!

Guest: Keep on going.

-Danke! Hope u enjoy

Fiore: me envicie leyendo esta historia, hoy leí los 27 capítulos y la nota que dejaste, espero que la paces excelente en Alemania

-Glad I have google translate! I hope to have a great time in Germany, and so here is chapter 28 in return. Equivalent exchange ;-)

Usaginekohime: Boo :o thought it was a quick update to remedy the pain of the cliffie.

-Sorry hon!

Quackerduck: 10 reviews isnt a lot :p at least youre not asking for 50 like so many authors. Good.

-Nice name! It's a lot to me! And I was completely overwhelmed by the amount of reviews- I had to answer reviews from two different pages in the history thing!

Kurogami: Hell yeah,  
>if that is not a motivation to write some reviews :D<br>I really like your story. Especially the op part. i am really glad to see her going around kicking asses right and left :D

-Glad u like- I agree with the powerful Naruto part (obviously!) and what's better than lots of reviews!?

So, without further ado (that is such an awesome phrase) I shall put you out of your misery (without a shotgun, don't worry. Not a mass murderer here… not even an 80 year old one ;-))

* * *

><p>"Well… I-I…" Naruto stuttered in shock, eyes wide in horror that someone else had learnt of her secret.<p>

"Well?" Jiraiya asked again, for once not joking or teasing around. Naruto recognised this look though. It was how he looked just before a serious fight, or when something dangerous was going on.

Was her secret really that bad?

"Ero-sennin- I… I can explain…" Naruto tried again.

"Save it Naruto," Jiraiya coldly cut her off.

"Ero-sennin! Kyofu!" Naruto yelled desperately as Jiraiya started to walk away.

"It's okay Naruto. I won't stick around. After all, apparently I'm not trust worthy enough for you. Ja ne. Have fun with the people that care about you," Jiraiya said with his back turned, before jumping away from the training field in silence.

"What- what have I done?" she whispered in a trembling voice, her voice fading in shock.

"Naruto? It's okay… Naruto!"

The last thing Naruto saw before she collapsed to the ground was Gaara's terrified green eyes.

* * *

><p>Gaara paced anxiously up and down the hall way. Naruto was inside that room… inside that hospital room.<p>

_*Flashback*_

_Jiraiya turned around and jumped away. Gaara sighed sadly, before turning to look at his despondent girlfriend as she whispered something softly._

_"Naruto?" he called out, walking over to her and bending down to eye height._

_"It's okay… Naruto!" Gaara yelled more forcefully, seeing her legs buckle and her eyes roll up._

_He flung out his arms, and gently caught her as she fell, unconscious._

_"Naruto!" Gaara called out once more, but she was dead to the world. He sighed, and held her body steadily in one hand, whilst reapplying a genjutsu with the other._

_Once it was in place, he set off at a quick walk back to a hospital where they could tell what was wrong with her._

_He only hoped it was nothing serious_

_*Flashback over*_

That had been three hours ago. And now Gaara was anxious, bored and out of things to do.

He returned to pacing the corridor.

* * *

><p><strong>"Where… am I…?" <strong>Naruto groggily thought as she opened her eyes to a blank ceiling.

**"You fainted kit," **Kyuubi answered, laughing but also sounding a bit worried.

**"Oh," **she responded with a yawn, reaching up a hand to rub her eyes.

It didn't move.

Frowning, Naruto looked towards her hand, and when she saw what was wrong with it, she smiled adoringly, and lay back down.

There were worse things in the world than waking up to find your boyfriend asleep next to you. Jiraiya would be dealt with later.

* * *

><p>As it turned out, Jiraiya would have to be dealt with an awful lot later, as immediately after leaving the training field he had gone to the Hokage.<p>

_"I'm going back to Ame,"_

_"Why?"_

_"It doesn't matter. See you soon, sensei,"_

It would be at least some months before he returned… longer if he was still angry with Naruto about the whole 'he's a girl' thing.

In the meantime, after the freak-out over Jiraiya had been looked at, beaten black and blue and then stuck aside for later, Naruto and Gaara had trained.

And trained.

And trained a bit more.

It was useful, for the final assessment of the exams was tomorrow, and it helped keep Naruto's mind off of Jiraiya's cruel words… not to mention amused Fu greatly whenever she came to watch, considering that the majority of the fights ended with a heated kiss, which she took great pleasure in interrupting.

In any way that pleased her, such as strolling over and staring, dragging them apart by their ears, asking to join in, taking photos…

The last one had been circulated around all of the genin in their year, and had met with varying responses.

However, today it was just them and so the two of them were taking great advantage of this and not much actual sparring had been going on.

It was just lucky that they hadn't seen Kakashi arriving with Sakura and Sasuke about five minutes ago.

"Hello Naruto!" Kakashi grinned, pulling two red faced genins behind him. The couple sprang away from each other hastily, blushing almost as much as the pink and blue headed shinobi were (Well, Naruto was anyway. Gaara just looked normal. Sakura was almost the same scarlet as Naruto, but Sasuke had recovered his normal 'holier-than-thou' **(A/N Can't remember where I got this from, but credit goes to another story that describes Neji and the Hyuuga as such!) **and returned to glaring fiercely at Naruto).

"Hi Kakashi," Naruto answered offhandedly; not quite cold but not quite friendly either. They hadn't sorted out the whole I-know-Sasuke's-giant-fireball-technique or the I'm-dumping-you-with-a-stuck-up-idiot-for-a-month-to-train-you part.

Hence the very awkward situations that occasionally cropped up whenever Kakashi and Naruto ended up in the same room without anyone else there.

Fortunately they could do a pretty decent job of avoiding that.

* * *

><p>Sasuke scowled.<p>

There they were again; the great Uchiha and a dumb orphan, for some reason stuck on the same team. Fate was cruel.

And how dare that baka steal his jutsu! It belonged to the Uchiha, and Naruto had no right to play around with it. Even the jounin used the technique only when it was essential **(A/N Poor delusional boy. That technique is really useless- when does the giant fireball ever actually hit anyone in canon!?)** as they recognised the superior belongings of his clan.

He would get that dobe back, if it was the last thing he did.

* * *

><p>The next morning dawned bright and early in Konoha; too early for some.<p>

Fu had been up with the birds, Gaara had never gone to sleep and Naruto…

"Go 'way," she groaned from inside her cocoon of blankets.

Fu snickered at the lump of warmth that was her best friend, and resumed poking it with an ice cube.

"Naruto-chan! Wakey-wakey!" she chirped cheerfully, grinning as Naruto reached out a lazy hand to slap the jinchuriki away.

"Nuh-uh-uh!" she responded, waggling a finger in mock anger at the oblivious blonde, and crept closer again.

"It's really time that you," she started

"Get" Fu lifted the edge of the covers gingerly

"Up!" she yelled, pouring her entire bucket of ice cubes down the gap in the blanket fortress.

Naruto yelped in shock as she touched the cold, wet and altogether unpleasant pieces that was the ice.

"FUUUU!" she howled in anger and misery.

* * *

><p>Across the other side of the village, Kakashi sat in his warm cosy bed, reading Icha-Icha with a pleasant cup of hot coffee.<p>

He didn't even notice the screech until birds flew, one after another, into the window next to him in their panic to escape the sound.

Sighing in exasperation and a fondness that the jounin tried to hide, he flipped a page of the book and kept reading.

* * *

><p>"I. Hate. You," Naruto growled through clenched teeth at the overly enthusiastic girl next to her.<p>

"Love you too, Naru-chan!" came the obnoxiously cheerful response, to which Naruto scowled, prodded Fu with bolts of electricity that she conducted through the senbon that was placed discreetly in her sleeve, and shut her eyes in hope of a bit more sleep before she had to deal with the annoying ball of joy that was her oh-so-kind teammate.

"Can all contestants please stand in order of their numbers please?" The proctor called out; a different one from the preliminaries.

What had happened to him? Naruto hadn't seen him at any point on her bi-weekly 'missions' either.

That merited some looking into.

For now though, she stood in the line next to where Sasuke should be standing… but wasn't. Damn. He wasn't going to make her _wait_ for the fight, was he? That- that- little teme! Who was he to challenge Naruto, the container of Kyuubi and the secret Kami no Hoshi?

"Everyone except contesters 1 and 2, please leave the arena," the man announced (Gemma? Gena? It was along those lines…) and Naruto stood still as she watched the other leave.

It was time for her fight, and if that teme wasn't here, then she would make certain that he forfeited his turn to fight.

He was long overdue an ego reduce.


	29. Of unexpected realisations

Chapter 29- Of unexpected realisations

So, don't know what the hell I'm doing, but surprise! Yes, I am lying in the dark (my parents think I'm in bed) writing out chapter 29. At 11 at night. Even though I spent the last 4 hours sorting out my tech homework, I felt that since I have so many dedicated readers (Yay! Fan-hug for everyone!) they deserved an update.. And so, here I am. The things I do for you guys…

Enjoy! It might be a while until the next one (which has the fight in it!)

* * *

><p>Naruto stood in the arena, alone.<p>

She could see Gaara and Fu, standing together off to the side of the stadium, and whilst Gaara was being his normal stoic self, the blonde could actually hear Fu's shouting from a fair distance away. Fu had never quite got the concept of 'silence' or 'quiet'; both were very alien things.

It was almost as alien for Fu to be quiet as it was for Kakashi to be on time. But why had he passed that habit of being late onto Sasuke?

"Uchiha Sasuke, please come down to the arena," Genma called out, reading off of his tournament schedule that the missing opponent was indeed Sasuke.

Naruto rolled her eyes as no brooding emo appeared.

"Uchiha Sasuke? You have one minute before disqualification," the proctor added, looking around for the missing boy.

Loud boos erupted from the crowd of spectators at this announcement; everyone wanted to see what the talented Uchiha boy could do.

Up in the box Sarutobi groaned, rubbing his forehead in frustration, and signalled for Genma to start the second match instead, and postpone Sasuke's until the end.

Genma nodded in return, and once the two minutes were up he lazily shouted out

"Uchiha Sasuke will fight Uzumaki Naruto after the first round of battles are fought. Instead, can we please have Sabaku no Temari and Nara Shikamaru in the arena,"

"But-!" Naruto yelled in outrage (she at least wanted to fight Temari then) but Genma frowned, and waved her off the pitch.

She scowled in a decent imitation of Sasuke's frown as she stomped off to the stands to wait with Gaara, and Temari smirked teasingly as she flew into the arena on her fan. Shikamaru muttered a quiet "mendokuse" as Ino screamed encouragements in his ear, and then pushed him down the stairs to the actual arena.

"And… HAJIME!"

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><p>Three hours later, Shikamaru yawned in his seat. It had been a long and fairly boring match, as he had had to wait until the shadows grew long enough for him to do anything, and the only thing that had stopped him from forfeiting was that every time he looked over to the seats, Neji had been watching avidly.<p>

Watching him.

Shikamaru had felt a thrill as he felt the eyes on him, and so he moved faster, languidly dancing away from all of the razor sharp gusts of wind instead of his usual tactics that he would have otherwise employed- hide behind one of those useful trees. What else were they there for?

But with every whisper of 'Kagemane no jutsu', with every moment spent in the sole attention of his crush, he had actually enjoyed the fight, and so when it ended, he didn't give up and instead whacked Temari's head against the floor (there were some benefits of her being taller than him) so that he would go through and fight Neji later on.

He grinned suddenly, shocking Ino and Chouji, in anticipation of the fight. It would be… _fun._

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><p><strong>(AN Running out of things to put in this chapter (fight is still next chapter) so have some random, non-plot, completely unrelated ShikaNeji stuff)**

Whilst Shikamaru was fighting, Neji had indeed been watching him.

At first it had been simply to see how a genius like Shikamaru fought, and then as the fight went on, the Hyuuga had found that he actually enjoyed watching the other fight; all graceful and lithe like a dancer but more than holding his own.

In fact, Neji had somehow ended up watching him for all three and a bit hours of his fight, and only realised what he was doing when the match ended and he sat up again.

The boy had blushed and quickly checked that no-one was watching him, only to find Hanabi seated along the row with her eyes focused on him, and a teasing eyebrow raised.

Neji flushed slightly, and turned up his nose away from his irritating cousin who was of the _main_ family. That was not appropriate; a main branch member should not tease him because he couldn't fight back.

Besides, what was the eyebrow even supposed to imply?

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><p>Gaara's match against Fu had been next, and although it had been rather lacking in jutsus, it had been in no way lacking entertainment. The two of them had used basic taijutsu, a large amount of sand (Gaara), many insects (Fu) and a great deal of flying had taken place before the match was over.<p>

Both of them had very successfully evaded the other's attacks for a good twenty minutes, and Gaara had won by a hair when Fu avoided the first three sand senbons he sent, and missed the fourth senbon that had hit her leg from behind. Normally that wasn't an issue, but he had coated the senbons in a paralysis poison that had immediately acted against Fu.

In fact, since poisons normally had such little effect on jinchuriki, Gaara had been forced to use a fatal poison (not that he told Naruto or any of her friends this- she would be outraged that he'd put Fu knowingly in a situation that could potentially kill her) which had acted the same way as a paralysis potion would on anyone else.

But as such, it had come to Katsu and Neji's match.

The first five minutes had been boringly docile; they stood in place and watched each other for movements, only sending out the occasional testing attack. It was only after Katsu's fifth senbon landed behind Neji that they blurred into action.

As it turned out, Katsu was stupidly talented with fire, but not the best at taijutsu. This had left him at a severe disadvantage against Neji due to the fact that the Hyuuga fought solely with taijutsu, and had eventually lost him the match.

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><p>So now it was technically Naruto and Sasuke's match (again) but the teme still wasn't here.<p>

What to do? **(A/N That is a very good question… anyone have any bright ideas? Much appreciated ;-) U can go back to the story now)**

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><p>So, lacking an opponent that had 15 minutes to show up or get disqualified, Naruto was sitting on the edge of the stands and swinging her legs hard into the metal that was underneath the seat.<p>

She was bored.

**"Hey kit? I think that you might want to pay a bit more attention…"** Kyuubi suddenly piped up.

**"Kyuu-chan! You're alive! You haven't spoken to me in a while,"** Naruto cheered, questioning her friend.

**"Attention!"** the fox snapped back, and Naruto dropped her head at the sharp tone.

**"Sorry Kyuubi,"** she answered, scanning her surroundings surreptitiously.

Nothing to the east, nothing to the north, nothing to the west, nothing to- wait. She sent her chakra sensors west again, checking a bit more thoroughly, and found something unexpected.

**"Kyuu-chan! That's- that's-"**

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><p>Meanwhile, over on the top of a mountain, Sasuke stood next to Kakashi, looking out at the view. He was wearing new ninja clothes (his normal blue shirt with the crest on it, new black gloves to help his taijutsu and hand seal accuracy, grey trousers that were both flexible, comfortable and tough and well-secured sandals).<p>

The exams had started a good 5 hours ago, but Kakashi had assured him that the others would wait for their prodigy child, and stayed out here practicing with him.

Over the month Kakashi-sensei had taught him loads of jutsus, tips and tricks, and now Sasuke was certain that if he found Itachi, he wouldn't just be standing there helpless.

He would attack him, and hit him. Itachi was going to pay.

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><p>Got to love the random Neji stuff. He's so cool. J I like… even though I adore ShikaTema, I couldn't help it…<p> 


	30. Hajime!

So yes. Hello. I am, in fact, alive… but possibly not for long *avoids kunai thrown*

It has been close to two months…and sorry to the people who I promised a chapter on Sunday to, but I had teeth pulled and then spent the last few days feeling sorry for myself and watching anime.

Unfortunately, the reason that this has taken so long is because I've moved away from the Naruto fandom, and am no longer that interested in it. However, I refuse to leave the story where it is and I will finish it, but I won't write the sequel (even though it has been planned) unless I once more become interested. Anyone who does want to is welcome to, and I'm happy to send the plot points via PM, but otherwise this story will be finished within the next 20k, although updates won't be very frequent.

For now though, thanks to all who read this (and those who review *hint hint* - specially 'Za Great Prussia' and lovelydragonfly') and so I have a chapter that meets my 1.5k limit for once!

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><p>Just read my reviews (didn't realise I had any!) and thanks to starrysky, glad u like ;-)<p>

To guest: I know this is like most 'mask' fanfics, but this story was really written because I was reading and loved those type of fics, no matter how cliché they are, but I wanted to do one to include all of the points I liked most, or wished I read about in them. About the 6-7 grade point, I am actually 13, so whilst I will try to incorporate better words, these are the sort of words that I use the whole time and therefore write with. Grammar, danke J, and I would ask someone to beta, but I take long enough to update anyway, and I don't want to inconvenience someone else with my weird times. I agree that I need to sort out the start of my story (if I ever have time then I will edit it) but I prefer to jump straight in and find out the story line along the way. With Gaara…once again, I agree but not sure how it should go, but hopefully I will come to it again in a few years and cringe at my younger self, and redo everything. Thanks for taking the time to tell me why u didn't like it, not just flame!

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><p><span>Chapter 30- Hajime!<span>

Genma frowned. It was unfortunate, but the match between Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto was going to have to be given to Naruto since the Uchiha hadn't come.

He didn't have anything against the boy, but even with the Kyuubi taken out of the equation, Naruto was quite dumb and irritating. If it hadn't been for the countless pranks, then the boy would probably have a few shinobi on his side, instead of the precious few that actually stood by him.

He shook his head, brown hair falling over his eyes as he rolled the senbon in his mouth once, debating, and then raised his hand.

"Since Uchiha Sasuke has not shown up, the match is-" he called out over the boos of those in the crowd who had apparently come to see the boy fight.

He was cut off by a swirl of leaves that arrived in the arena in front of him.

In the middle of the leaves, a figure stood. He had tight grey trousers on, a loose blue shirt covering his top half, fingerless gloves adorning his hands and ninja sandals securely on his feet.

Then he turned around, and Genma looked into the face of Uchiha Sasuke.

He blinked. Okay. So that was how they were playing it.

"In which case, the match between Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto…Hajime!" he barked, and jerked his hand down.

Sasuke leaped forward, chakra focused loosely in his fist as he charged towards the distracted Naruto.

He hit her cheek hard, the chakra reinforcing his punch and bruising Naruto's face as she flew backwards into the stands that were about a step behind her.

**"Chikusho!"** she hissed to Kyuubi. She faked dizziness, standing up with a grimace on her face.

**"Kyu-chan! What do I do? I can't completely beat him, but I need to get to chuunin or the village will never respect me," **she fretted, realising that this was the wrong time to think of what she needed to outcome to be.

There was no answer from Kyuubi.

**"Kyuubi?"**

Naruto ducked another punch from Sasuke, allowing one to land on her leg where it was covered by her kunai pouch.

Ok then. She was on her own.

So she needed to win, but not show off her true power…so if she used two or so B-ranks, then she would have to be made chuunin (B-ranks were too powerful for a genin) and she would be a step closer to having the respect of the village.

Only then would she be able to reveal her true self.

**"Ok. Ok then. I can do this," **Naruto told herself, scowling outwardly at Sasuke's smirking face.

The blonde launched herself at him; fist clenched in anticipation as she quickly ran through a list of jutsus that she could use.

_That one!_

"Futon Shinkuha," Naruto whispered, stopping mid-step and whirling around in a circle. The blade of wind cut through the air, heading for Sasuke's middle (cutting through a few unfortunate trees along the way) and she hastily ran through another sequence of seals.

**"Ox, dog, dragon…"** she mumbled, grinning wildly as she let a single shuriken fly, seconds behind the first blade.

"Come on…" Naruto hissed, glaring at Sasuke as he languidly stood in place, unafraid of the massive jutsu that was bearing down on him.

It grew closer and closer, and Sasuke prepared to jump over it, running through a set of seals that Naruto had never seen before, but it didn't matter as he was now at the perfect position for her to finish her last jutsu.

"Shuriken kage bunshin no jutsu!" Naruto yelled.

"Raigeki!" Sasuke yelled simultaneously.

The shuriken that had flown behind Naruto's wave of wind suddenly multiplied, and all of a sudden there were a thousand shuriken metres from his face.

As Sasuke saw the shuriken, his hand was already sparking furiously with lightning that was extended towards the ground.

He brought it up to protect himself from the shuriken, but the lightning only blasted those in a straight line to it and the technique was designed as offensive, and was weak as defence.

Naruto stood far back, watching as twenty shuriken remained on a direct path to Sasuke.

Five or so were knocked away with the lightning blade, whilst the boy bent over backwards and avoided another six. The last nine were seconds away from slicing into him, when he suddenly whipped out with his hands (having released the lightning ninjutsu) and hit six of the shuriken with kunai that hit dead on.

The final two shuriken buried themselves in his right leg and the elbow on his left arm.

The crowd was silent as they saw the Uchiha wounded quite badly by the jinchuriki, and started whispering to themselves.

"The demon must have tricked him,"

"It's that baka's fault that Sasuke-kun is hurt. How dare he!"

"It must be-"

Naruto shut her ears to the hateful mutterings, and focused once again on Sasuke as he stood up, unbalanced, leaning heavily on his left leg.

He was scowling viciously and his hands were forming seals at a furious rate, even as blood trickled down his arm from where the weapon had bit into a vein and the only thing stopping it from streaming was the metal that was stuck there for now.

Well this was great.

She had been hoping that Sasuke would use a more generalised lightning attack, one that would only pass through her shuriken and electrocute them. It was just unlucky that the technique Sasuke had chosen was not that sort of jutsu.

And now she was also limited to the academy techniques, and a few simple things like kage bunshin no jutsu and the currently useless nawanuke no jutsu.

She scoffed, but kept her face set carefully into an angry position. It wouldn't do to change persona so soon after revealing a few high ranked jutsus- she was already being watched by many people for signs of Kyuubi emerging.

**"Kyuubi! Any bright ideas?" **Naruto yelled into her mindscape, but it was pointless. Kyuubi was gone.

**"Where are you Kyu-chan!?" **She worried, before bringing her attention back to the match.

Kyuubi would be fine. She was an enormous demon fox, with unlimited chakra and plenty of knowledge to go along with it. She was hardly going to be brought down by a few mind techniques, or indeed lots of them.

**"So what to do…" **Naruto wondered, staring intently at Sasuke. He was still running through seals, but now she saw what was off about the situation.

Every few seals, his hands would spark before fizzling back into nothing, and then he would do some more seals.

_Osuushi,usage, saru…_

_Osuushi, usage, saru…_

It was definitely the same pattern...he was struggling to form his jutsu.

**"Yes!"** Naruto formed a simple cross seal, cursing the fact that she couldn't show her ability to make bunshin without it, and caused three bunshin to appear, two beside her and one behind.

The one at her back transformed into a kunai, and one of the others picked it up and charged at Sasuke with it in her hand.

Sasuke easily dodged it, pulling out a kunai of his own and stabbing the two clones through their stomachs. They both vanished in a cloud of smoke, leaving the kunai behind him on the floor.

Quietly, it transformed back into a clone and Naruto used kawarimi to swap places with it, raising a kunai and jumping onto Sasuke's back. He staggered, tripping onto his back with her underneath him as shock marred his features, and then tried to pull her off of him, sparking her chest with lightning

The lightning shocked her, and it caused an unexpectedly pleasant emotion as it arched through her breast, and she accidently dropped her henge as she was prone to doing with Gaara around.

Fortunately, no-one could really see her as she lay squished under her opponent, and so all anyone saw was a flicker of black as she realised what she had done and replaced the genjutsu.

The only one who realised anything had happened was Sasuke.

He had been fighting tooth and nail against her strong grip over his neck, when suddenly two warm breasts pressed into his back and he froze in surprise. The next moment, the feeling was gone again but a kunai was held over his throat.

"I win," Naruto grinned into his ear, as the proctor declared the blonde the winner.

He scowled and stood up, stalking over to the exit of the arena. Naruto grinned wider as she watched him leave, but then she felt that familiar chakra again.

So _he_ was finally here.


	31. They're gonna regret that

Chapter 31- They're gonna pay the price

Gomenasai! I have finally returned, a year later. I just realised that I left it on a total cliffhanger, but…yeah, sorry about that. I got through the year, and won nanowrimo! Yay! It was exhausting, but great fun, and so I suggest anyone who's up for a tonne of writing go search it. Now.

I'm amazed by the amount of people still here and bothering to review or send me messages telling me that I'd better update- danke schon to all of you!

Later edit: Upon re-reading this story (I'd even forgotten what gender I'd made Kyuubi!) I realised that I forgot to address something earlier. Sometime around chapter 20 (too lazy to find out which one) I replied to a flame, and I'd just like to say that I have nothing against yaoi (male x male), and in fact, I love it- I really have no idea why I made Naruto have a straight pairing anymore, but that's what past me did, and so present and future me have to stick with it. I don't even know. But yes, that's that. Onwards to what you guys actually want!

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><p>Naruto glanced around herself for a moment, but couldn't see anyone watching here (other than one of the Anbu guards that Sarutobi thought she didn't know of), and took the leap by wordlessly and without any seals creating a kage bunshin. It appeared behind her silently and in that same split second Naruto shun shinned out of the arena with a gust of wind (her element was always easiest to use, especially in a situation where she needed to conserve chakra or use a jutsu quickly).<p>

She landed neatly just before the wall that Konoha stood behind, careful to land outside of the walls and far away from any gates- she didn't trust the two shinobis as far as they could throw her (she could have thrown them pretty far, especially with the help of chakra), and the feeling was mutual.

In fact, Naruto would have been rather happy to just leave most of the village to be destroyed by the new arrivals, but that would greatly decrease the chances of ever being accepted, and so she reined in that urge in favour of standing alert.

However, despite the time it had taken to reach the walls and a suitable place to fight (she knew that the other could have demolished half the village if she hadn't been quick enough) there was no one around.

Frowning at the new development, she carefully scanned the area, using her chakra sensor skills to check for any ninjas around that might be out of her sight, and warily straightened up.

**"Kyu-chan, I don't like this," **Naruto thought, shifting uncomfortably.

**"It does feel like a trap…check a bit further out, maybe they've expected you to sense them and are taking their time," **Kyuubi mused, commanding Naruto to do as she bid.

Watching her surroundings closely, the girl sent out her senses in a wider perimeter. She stiffened as a flare of familiar chakra reached her, judging the speed of the other as accurately as she could and realising that there was nothing to do but wait for them to come to her.

**"I'm going to have to wait," **Naruto communicated to Kyuubi, relaxing so that she looked almost defenceless, but in reality making sure her bow was close enough to access immediately and keeping her special weapons close to hand.

Closing her blue eyes quickly, the blonde sent out a thought to the other jinchuriki in the area.

**"Fu-chan, Gaara-kun, I've left the arena. There's someone coming to attack…****_he's_**** coming," **Naruto informed them, feeling the surprise and wariness that flickered to life in her friend and boyfriend.

**"Why didn't you wait for us?" **Fu harshly demanded to know, wanting Naruto to be safe and not facing off against that man alone.

**"I need you two to protect the village- there's more coming. There's quite a few, at least 50 shinobi have entered my range…they are Kiri and Oto nins," **The girl grimly replied, opening her eyes and letting go of her link to the others.

There was no time to say anymore. Not with the man so close.

Naruto stared stock still at the empty forest ahead, watching it until it was suddenly not empty anymore.

Kabuto had finally arrived.

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><p>"Why, hello Naruto-kun," Kabuto greeted amicably, having met the blonde briefly during the first test in the chuunin exams, and digging for information on the jinchuriki for a lot longer.<p>

"Kabuto," Naruto growled, fuming at the sight of the Oto headband the man now wore.

"My my, Naruto-kun. You don't look pleased to see me," he laughed in his usual way, mouth smiling and eyes shut so that no one could tell how fake it was.

Naruto knew though. There was no hiding it from her.

"Traitor," she hissed at him, remembering the Konohan leaf that had decorated his hitai-ate the last time they had clashed forces.

"Now actually, if you think about it, I was never a Konoha shinobi, so how would I be a traitor?" Kabuto playfully responded, taunting Naruto with his light hearted comments.

"I knew you weren't right when we first met, but there was no need to kill Hayate," the blonde denounced with a clenched fist and ground teeth.

"Oh, but then he'd have revealed our plans. I had to," the silver haired ninja explained, eyes open and watching Naruto now.

Naruto smirked suddenly, a victorious and vicious expression that alarmed Kabuto even as he tried to hide it. "What?" he asked, wary of the younger shinobi.

"I guess it's tit for tat," Naruto taunted, pulling out a sealing scroll, the one that held Orochimaru in it, and waving it around.

"In this scroll, I captured your precious master," she gloated, powering up a few other seals in her pocket as the man turned his attention to the other scroll.

"As if you could capture him," Kabuto scoffed, the fear completely gone from his expression once again.

"As if a weak little genin like me could capture a sannin…" Naruto mused, releasing one of her seals for a brief moment, letting the full sense of her pure chakra flare out for a moment, then putting the chakra suppressor back in place. It was very useful for making sure that no one could sense her full chakra capacity, not even Sandaime.

Kabuto's eyes widened as he felt the chakra that Naruto kept hidden.

"You," he breathed out, staring straight at Naruto and not even noticing when she put the scroll back in her pocket, subtly switching it for a second identical one. "Who are you?" he questioned, now more alert than he had been to start with.

"Just a weak little genin that likes to play with the stars," Naruto hinted, pulling her other hand out of her pocket and letting the privacy seal surround their little clearing, layering it with a quick genjutsu so that the outside world would see nothing of this fight until it was over.

"Just a little Konoha shinobi," Naruto said, and finally let go of the seal that kept her genjutsu of a male up.

Her true features returned to her, legs and chest growing as her hair appeared back in its long ponytail, weapons appearing onto her back as she stood there; Kabuto watched in stunned silence as she did so, not quite ready to attack yet.

Slowly, carefully, she drew a single arrow and activated the chakra suppressor on it, drawing it into her bow and even as Kabuto weaved out of the way, she shot the arrow straight towards his heart.

With an uncomfortable squelch, it lodged into his shoulder due to a last minute dodge he had instinctively tried and the seal spread its effects throughout his body, flowing down his arm and across his right leg, spreading partially into his left foot as his left hand yanked it out and the man applied a green glowing hand to the wound. It sealed up instantly, and Kabuto was off.

To the average eye, it seemed as though the so called genin had disappeared, but to a ninja it was obvious that he had just moved quickly. To Naruto, the man was moving fast but not fast enough that she would be caught out by him. As he swooped in with a chakra scalpel protruding from his left hand (his right was still affected by the earlier seal, no matter how well the wound itself had healed) the blonde simply stepped back and let it pass by her harmlessly.

"Is that the best you can do, Ka-bu-to-kun," Naruto taunted, her anger hidden in favour of a more infuriating light hearted approach. Kabuto gritted his teeth quietly, but didn't respond, swiping at her another time but missing with an easy dodge once more.

"You don't have to hold back you know," the girl smiled, the fake expression not reaching her eyes but performing its purpose none the less.

"Damn you," Kabuto finally snapped, glaring his dark eyes at her in a manner that could be perceived as threatening.

"Aw, that's not nice," Naruto frowned, powering up the scroll that she still held and throwing it high into the air. "I guess I will have to punish you," she said, and drew another arrow (only the second one she had used this battle). As the scroll reached the height of its arc and began to unravel itself as it fell to the floor, Naruto shot the arrow at Kabuto, quick firing another two after it.

The man tensed, preparing to dodge, but after a more careful glance at the arrows themselves, Kabuto noticed that their aim wasn't true- they weren't going to hit him- and so he merely let the arrow dig into the ground behind him, the other two ending up on either side of him. He finally looked up, preparing himself to slice the scroll in half before the seal embedded on it could serve its purpose, but as it fell, it seemed to almost wink out of existence.

Confused, Kabuto tried to move from where it was likely to fall if indeed, it was merely invisible, but to his surprise and horror, he couldn't move.

"What-" he started, realising that even his hands were stuck in front of him, no use in any sort of fight, and he looked up straight at Naruto who smiled sweetly at him.

The silver haired man had a moment to let the fact that he was being beaten by a young _girl_ sink in, but before he could try to break out of the trap he had fallen into, the scroll landed onto his head and the edges of the paper draped down either side of his body. Quickly, Naruto darted forwards, long hair flying out behind her like a cape, and she inserted a large sliver of chakra into the scroll, causing it to glow for a moment and then almost swallow Kabuto up as it fell innocently through the space where the man had been moments before until it landed with a clatter on the floor.

Naruto grinned, allowing the elation of the victory to shine upon her face for a brief moment, before she walked over to one of the four arrows that were arranged in a rough circle around the scroll, focusing her elemental chakra through it until the subtle lightning currents that had been disrupting Kabuto's nerves were cut through by the overwhelming power of the wind, and she casually picked them up, placing the four weapons back into her quiver, storing away the scrolls she had been waving around and reapplying her henge.

Carefully, the jinchuriki allowed her senses to fan out around her to make sure that no one would be watching when she took off the genjutsu that was surrounding the scene of the battle, before letting the mild chakra dissipate along with the privacy seal.

She couldn't use that seal again anyway; not after she had transferred it to the ground around the clearing.

Closing her eyes, Naruto linked herself back to her friends. **"Fu, Gaara, are you alright?" **she worried, prodding their minds with chakra so that they wouldn't ignore her.

**"Yes, we're fine. Just stop doing that, it's annoying," **Gaara sighed back, briefly flickering into focus in the shared mindscape, before fading out again. **"We're currently fighting in the centre of the test field, but the Hokage seems to be in some kind of trouble. There's a barrier around him, so we can't get in," **The redhead informed Naruto, who immediately nodded a reply and kawarimed with her clone from earlier. She would have preferred to swap places with one of the enemy shinobi, but it would be a waste of chakra to try that from as far away as she was. This was a much smaller use of chakra.

"Hokage-jiji!" Naruto yelled up towards the roof, where she could see there was a purple box surrounding the Sandaime and some other ninja of whom only an aura could be seen.

The old man didn't even turn around to acknowledge the jinchuriki (Naruto theorised that the box was sound proof) but kept on fighting.

The girl sighed, and spared a glance for the arena, which was currently rather overrun by the Oto and Kiri nins, and there were also some giant summons wrecking the walls on the far side of the village. It wasn't snakes fortunately (once again, Naruto wasted a moment realising that snakes were Orochimaru's summon, and so no one else would summon them) but a giant crocodile fighting a giant dog and a rather large insect.

Naruto bit back a chuckle as she watched the spectacle; a dog and an insect fighting a crocodile was not something that she saw every day, and indeed was probably something she'd never see again. She tried to figure out who's summons were who's, and whilst the insect was obviously Fu's, and the dog was probably Kakashi's, the crocodile was an unknown factor.

It worried her that they were facing an enemy strong enough to summon something like _that_, especially as it seemed to be holding its own against the two other summons- she knew for a fact that the insect was strong and as much as she hated to admit it, the dog was also likely to give a good fight if it was anything like its master.

Realising that there was nothing she could do about that issue right now, she none the less created two Kage bunshin and made sure they set off right away to help the tiny figures of jounin that she could also spot leaping around, trying to slow down the giant creatures. Along the way, she bid them to take off the henge and throw on a cape so that she as the Naruto everyone knew would not be implicated or questioned.

In the meantime, she whirled back to her own arena and released about a hundred shadow clones, all under the henge jutsu, and sent them out to defeat some of the shinobi she could see (but only use their true power if no one was watching or nearby).

Naruto herself ran into the building that ran along the perimeter of the field, throwing herself up the stairs and using a small futon jutsu to weaken the roof from the inside, she smashed boldly through the tiles.

The idiots hadn't thought to watch the floor, and were now going to pay the price.

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><p>Okay, it's not quite double. But almost. I think it's close enough…it's Christmas, and Dr Who is on in a little bit, so I'm gonna go and be social with my family! Idek…<p>

Merry Christmas people! Hope u had a great day- here's your present from me!

Also, if I get more than 10 reviews I will update again tomorrow, and more than 20 reviews I will update on the 28th as well (my great uncle's bday on the 27th so I won't have any time to write). Danke!


	32. Not even going to comment

Chapter 32-Not even going to comment

As promised, Boxing Day update! I got 13 reviews, and so here I am, writing up another chapter at 9…me, procrastinate? No, never!

Anonymous reviews:

Me: I'm glad you enjoy! Femnaru is quite fun, and thank you :-D

Jleda: Happy now? ;-)

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><p>Naruto emerged onto the ceiling in an explosion of orange and debris.<p>

"Alright, who's up for a fight against the future Hokage, Uzumaki Naruto?" she yelled, brashly looking around the box to see who she was up against. "No one?" Naruto grinned widely, focusing her gaze at one of the shinobi in the corner.

"Naruto, it's not safe here!" the Sandaime cried, taking his eyes off of his opponent as he called out to her.

"I'm fine, jiji!" she yelled back cheerfully, not letting the confusion that she was now feeling appear in her voice.

What was Orochimaru doing here? Surely she had sealed him away in a scroll at the chuunin exams?

**"I don't know kit, but be on your guard. If that's Orochimaru, there's something we're missing, and if it's an imitation than it's probably someone quite strong, possibly who we don't know about,"** Kyuubi commented shrewdly, and Naruto replied **"If we don't know who they are, then they are probably with a village since we know the people in the bingo books," **

**"Just be careful,"** the kyuubi answered, flicking her tails around her inside Naruto's mindscape.

**"Hai,"** Naruto responded, and drew a few kunai. Realising that if she wanted to help the Hokage, she was going to have to use her true power, she subtly created a kage bunshin on the floor below them and kawarimed with it as the hokage's attention was drawn back to his enemy.

With her kage bunshin now pretending to be her, Naruto released her henge and applied a milder new one, so that she appeared taller, with brown hair and green eyes and her whiskers vanished. This way she wouldn't be recognised, but just in case Naruto applied a second henge over the first to render herself invisible, and then preparing a genjutsu to throw over the roof as soon as she appeared upon it.

Another leap took Naruto back onto the roof and this time she didn't waste a moment before casting her genjutsu. All it would do was make it appear that the purple barrier was still up (she had a suspicion that it would collapse with the loss of one of the participants, and then she was off to attack the enemies gathered there. Relying on Sarutobi to handle 'Orochimaru', she ran straight towards the ninja that looked weakest, a red headed kunoichi, and then she flawlessly pulled out a few kunai (these shinobi didn't look worth drawing her bow for, and added to the fact that her beautiful bow made her quite recognisable, the weapon just wasn't worth the risk).

Naruto closed her eyes as she drew closer, channelling wind chakra down to her weapons and creating a small blade around the main blade of the diamond shaped dagger. It hummed quietly, but not enough to draw the attention of any sort of inexperienced ninja. A more knowledgeable shinobi would realise that the noise indicated the existence of extra elemental chakra, but regardless of how powerful this ninja was, she didn't have the chance to escape Naruto's kunai.

It sliced easily through her skin; a hot knife through butter, such was the sharpness of the wind chakra. The red head barely had time to look surprised at the sudden attack before she died as the kunai punctured her heart- an easy kill. Naruto sighed as she wiped the bloody weapon on the girl's top (she always hated kills, but sometimes they were necessary) and straightened up again, releasing the henge that caused her to be invisible and instead yanking on a dark cloak that she usually used for her out of village 'missions'.

True to her prediction, the true purple barrier had fallen, but the ANBU outside still believed it was there and so she was free to attack the remaining three enemy shinobi without annoyances. However, it was only a temporary solution since the elite shinobi were sure to notice that it was only a genjutsu soon.

Never the less, Naruto pulled the cloak tighter around herself as she pulled out a few shuriken, letting them fly with a deadly aim towards the next shinobi, a rather large ninja who also had red hair (although it wasn't as deep as the blood red hair of the last female, more of a gingery red).

As they reached the man, the blonde whispered "Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu," under her breath, watching the few shuriken multiply into hundreds, but none of them reached their intended target as said target performed a few hand seals and with a loud cry of "Doton:_!" a wall formed out of earth in the way. Naruto cursed softly, realising that the other two shinobi were also turning to see who had killed their fourth member.

**"Damn it. Kyuu-chan, we should have killed the more powerful ones first,"** the girl analysed their mistake.

**"Never mind that now. You need to get rid of those three nins,"** Kyuubi agreed with her, but made sure that they had their priorities straight at the moment.

**"Okay,"** Naruto answered, glancing at the ANBU and then at Sarutobi (who was currently engaged in battle, and not paying too much attention to her.

**"Is it safe to take out my bow?"** she wondered quickly, knowing that it would be a lot easier to kill these three strong shinobi with it.

**"If you do, then everyone will think that you are an ally of the leaf. Worse, they might start looking for the Kami no Hoshi here in Konoha," **the kitsune warned, not against the idea but making sure that Naruto knew the issues that would arise.

**"I'm going to have to risk it,"** she eventually decided, Kyuubi remaining silent.

With a small flourish, Naruto tried to pull the bow out of the seal on her very top pocket, only to find that it was stored in a different pocket. What appeared to have been sealed in that one was a lettuce, rather mouldy and not at all edible. She physically reeled back from it, noticing her three opponents doing the same thing on the other side of it, none of them particularly willing to go anywhere near it.

"Sorry," Naruto offered them sheepishly, heading a bit closer to the lettuce in order to get rid of it, only to recoil in shock as the lettuce hopped a step towards her. "-What!?" she exclaimed in surprise (in the back of her mind Kyuubi rolled her eyes- she knew that they should have hunted down all of those mutant foods when they first emerged).

It jumped again as Naruto stood frozen, opening a mouth that had somehow grown on it, one that had some alarmingly large teeth (especially for a lettuce).

"Gah!" she yelped as it made another bound right next to her foot, and she hurriedly kicked it away from her. It landed with a loud _thwack_ on the forehead of a ninja, the large one which had defended her shuriken earlier, and he fell over backwards, unconscious.

Naruto smiled somewhat gleefully; this was why people should wear their hitai aite on their heads like she did.

The mutant lettuce bounced into the hands of another shinobi, who looked at it in bemusement until it sunk its fangs into his thumb, whereupon he let go of it with a cry and it flew back to Naruto, who hurriedly batted it back, letting the small vegetable wreak havoc on the guy with six arms (she wasn't even going to comment).

"Get away from me!" he yelled again, throwing it like a crazy beach ball back to the blonde kunoichi, who happily continued their game of back and forth, launching it at the other man until they were playing some sort of insane game of hot potato.

Naruto was more than happy to do that all day, rather than have to fight and probably kill the others, but their childish game came to an abrupt halt as she hit it off course, and it flew towards the other shinobi, the one with a horn emerging from his forehead, and it impaled itself with a _squelch_ there.

No one moved as the lettuce wriggled and gnashed its teeth as it remained stuck on the horn.

The man calmly reached up, pulling the lettuce off of himself and squeezing it in his hand until it imploded into hundreds of tiny pieces (Naruto fancied she heard a small cry of _'Nooooooo' _as it died, but Kyuubi didn't agree).

Sharing a glance with the six armed man, the two decided they weren't going to mention it, and pulled out their respective weapons. They needed to be serious about this.

A small burst of chakra finally released Naruto's bow and quiver, which she slung over her back and prepped the bow with an explosive arrow.

She drew back the taut bowstring, preparing to fire it, but a noise from their left caught all three shinobis attention as 'Orochimaru' seemed to dissipate in a cloud of smoke, the henge finally released.

All Naruto could do was stare in astonishment. She knew what this meant, but not why that ninja was here.

What were they thinking?

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><p>HAHAHA CLIFFHANGER (LOVE YA TOO SAMIAM2468)<p>

Have fun! Thanks to 14 reviews, I have updated. Still boxing day! Got 15 minutes left of it too…this is why I should never listen to music and write.

I also realised that I'd lost the humour that this fic thrives on. So tada, it returns. I'm quite fond of my little lettuce- maybe I'll name him and use him later. Even though he died. Edo tensei? Any ideas on names?

Anyway, hope u enjoyed! I have changed my mind about weekly updates- will update after every 15 reviews (so it might be faster, or slower! Up to you guys!)


	33. Situational awareness

Chapter 33- Situational awareness

Yes, it's been weeks. Yes, I suck at updating. Yes, I suck at deadlines. Meh. Sorry people. At least it wasn't a year this time, huh?

I have an update. Happy? I hope so- I got plenty of reviews telling me to upload (thanks to the most recent anonymous review, lilyofthemangapan!)

I was reading through (yup, cringing at the start. I do need to sort it!) and I saw that I used to have trouble with 1.5k chapters…it was nano. Nano has changed me, and now I automatically write to 2k (that was my daily word count), and I just found it amusing. Even if no one else does…

Enjoyed Sherlock people? I certainly did! So many references…confirmed facts, original Sherlock (and lines!) and some great family love with Mycroft and Sherlock. They are so cute…

And doctor who of course. Finally, we have the towers of Darrilium. The real thing is so similar to some DW fanfics I've read though- it's pretty damn cool!

Enough blabbering. Have fun. I have killed the cliffhanger. Finally. Be amazed.

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><p>Naruto shook her head firmly. It didn't matter what they were doing here, all that mattered was that she was going to defeat these idiots in front of her. There were still more opponents than she ideally wanted to fight (although she was getting a bit bored of all this fighting- why couldn't they just settle this with a game of jan ken pon?) but at least the crazy lettuce had taken out one of them, leaving her only two to fight.<p>

"Futon bunshin no jutsu," Naruto muttered quietly, not forming any hand seals as she didn't want anyone to be able to recognize this jutsu, and a clone materialized next to her. It drained a fair bit of chakra, but she didn't mind to much, knowing that she had plenty at her and Kyuubi's disposal.

It was, like normal elemental clones, very strong in one department and very weak in others. In fact, Naruto mused, it was like the opposite of the Iwa bunshin, which were very durable but stupid as anything. No, stupider than that. That was like comparing Sasuke to Gaara, the difference in brain power was stupendous.

Regardless, this clone was very weak and wouldn't take a hit, but could move like lightning (it was made of wind after all), and had a mixture of her own and Kyuubi's ideas for battle plans. Hopefully it was the useful half (Kami knew that half of the things she and Kyuu-chan did during fights was finding pranks to play on opponents either on the spot or at a later date).

Sending the lightweight clone off to the side, away from Sarutobi and also away from her own soon-to-be fight, it sent out a few shuriken at the shinobi with a horn protruding from his head, and just as he (? It was hard to tell sometimes with these shinobi) was about to do something (she was sure he was about to move, not just let himself die like _that_), the shuriken veered off to the side and tangled the ninja wire that they were trailing all through six armed guy's arms.

Hurriedly, Naruto 2 pulled him away with the strings and the horned shinobi was left facing Naruto alone.

"Shall we dance?" Naruto grinned, allowing the sun to glint sharply off of her teeth as she whipped out a few windmill shuriken, and sent them flying towards him.

In the same moment, the blonde took off running from her spot, and whilst she knew that it would be productive to get an idea of how the man fought, she ignored her own advice and yanked out a particularly sharp arrow which whizzed through the air and slice cleanly through the back of his head.

Naruto frowned, and stood up. That was unexpected.

Striding over to yank out her soiled arrow, she carefully held a kunai to the man's throat and sliced through the windpipe and artery, noticing how blood didn't come pouring out as she did so- he was definitely dead.

A little disappointed with the weakness of her own opponent, Naruto glanced towards Naruto 2 and noticed how she was close to getting tangled up by some sort of sticky substance that was attached to most, not quite all, but most of the roof top and walls nearby. Naruto 2 danced lithely through the chaos, infuriatingly nimble with her steps.

Naruto grinned, although the cloak still covered her face, and was about to jump after the six armed man when a movement from behind caught her attention and she looked behind her, freezing in some emotion that wasn't quite identifiable. It wasn't fear, wasn't exhilaration, but wasn't quite anger or shock either.

However, whatever Naruto felt about it, the fact remained that he dead opponent was now standing tall, with an unsliced throat and perfectly round head, no arrow hole to be seen.

What was going on?

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><p>"What are you?" Naruto hissed at him, the shinobi only grinning back before he shot forward, almost alarmingly fast.<p>

She quickly dodged to one side, noting as she did so how the man didn't actually carry any specialised weapons on him. That meant that he was either a fuuinjutsu expert (unlikely, since there weren't very many around, and she couldn't see any pouches on his person) or a ninjutsu user.

Her theory was proved as the man quickly launched into some seals (fire seals by the looks of it) and Naruto made sure to take out one of her seals and place it on the ground before she launched herself out of its path.

Regardless of the abilities of the man-who-didn't-die, Naruto had a plan forming in her mind.

**"Good idea. Go for it,"** Kyuubi approved and Naruto permitted herself a small, tight smile before falling back into her battle mode.

She glanced back to where she had left the body of the man, hoping to see her kunai left there (it would be useful to have a few weapons around the field) and was shocked to see the body that she had left there unmoved.

So this man wasn't immortal, or some kind of healer- it was a different jutsu, one that Naruto had never heard of. None the less, it wouldn't hurt anything to kill this guy as well and see what had happened with her own eyes.

Realising that this shinobi wasn't immortal made Naruto spontaneously choose a plan to go with, and threw out a shuriken, just testing the waters as the man narrowed his eyes and easily caught it, noticing the explosive tag on the handle immediately and throwing it away so that it exploded in midair, but that was long enough for Naruto to shunshin next to him, tagging him with a seal lightly before she ran around to his other side, hitting his temple with a small chakra thread and tangling him up in it.

She grinned in satisfaction, watching as he tried to summon a bit of chakra to break out of the thin binds, but found he couldn't due to the chakra absorbing seal that she had placed on him.

Looking out for that vicious horn of his, the blonde darted behind him and pushed him forwards, noticing with mild interest as she realised how weak he was without the use of chakra to fortify his muscles. It was a simple task to push him towards his comrade, the chakra strings that had been thrown all over his battle ground immediately catching the fresh strings that had been attached to the man.

Her opponent frowned as he was stuck down (the six armed one hadn't noticed them), and his eyes widened as she formed the kai symbol with her hands, and released all of the chakra that had been built up in the seal on his side.

It exploded sharply, tearing right through the man and running along the chakra in a flurry of lightning sparks (it wasn't her main or even secondary affinity, but the seal had helped to strengthen it) towards the final enemy shinobi.

He noticed it just as it crept up on him (really, was he meant to be a shinobi? He needed to pay more attention to his surroundings) and it shocked him until his arms fell slack and his body fell down unconscious. Hurriedly, Naruto 2 drew out a little wind chakra and sent it spinning through the air until it sliced neatly through his neck.

The two Narutos nodded to one another, before turning finally to the main battle, which was pretty much over without their help.

The fake Orochimaru stood over a panting Sarutobi, who was pretty much defeated. Realising this, Naruto glanced at the Anbu still outside (more people who needed to keep a better situational awareness). Quietly, she bent down and reinforced the genjutsu, strengthening it so that people would be able to feel the barrier (although it would no longer spark them like the real one had) and buying herself a little time with the other shinobi.

Looking back to Naruto 2, the wind clone nodded and saluted sharply, releasing her own chakra and dissipating into the air (the jinchuriki could feel how it suddenly became charged with elemental chakra) and Naruto saw how the Sandaime was still alive and conscious.

Becoming frustrated at this situation, she flickered forwards and knocked the man out with a tap to the head with the blunt end of her kunai.

"You," she said evenly to the man who stood in front of her.

He said nothing, studying her carefully and not moving a muscle- not even as she put her hand into her kunai pouch and launched herself forwards at him.

Itachi caught her as she fell into his arms though.

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><p>(AN Would I be killed if I left it here? I have a suspicion…luckily for u guys, I feel guilty for leaving everyone in suspense, and so I shall finish this scene. Appreciate it! ;-))

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><p>"What are you doing here, Itachi-nii?" Naruto breathlessly asked, hugging the man as tightly as she could.<p>

Itachi smiled gently down at her. "The Akatsuki decided that we should take advantage of Orochimaru's disappearance," he answered.

Naruto grinned widely, allowing her childish side to shine through. "I'm glad you could visit," she smiled wider; it had been years since they'd been able to meet up (even with Naruto's skills at skipping town, Itachi was watched nearly every he went).

"So am I," Itachi answered, lips curled up in his rare smile. "But I need to warn you as well,"

"About what?" Naruto responded warily, her mood undergoing an immediate 360 at this.

"The Akatsuki are coming after the jinchuriki. They are going to extract the Kyuubi if they catch you, and the only options left are to run, fight or join them," Itachi sighed, closing his eyes tiredly.

"Why would I join them?" Naruto snorted, considering her other options. "I guess I will have to fight," she answered him.

"Are you sure? We would welcome you happily, and you could finally be your true self," Itachi offered, studying her face carefully for signs of what she was thinking.

"I'm sure," Naruto decided, glancing at the barrier that held the Anbu back. Itachi noticed her look, and gently pulled her face back to look at him.

"I need to go, Naruto-chan," he admitted, not wanting to leave but knowing that he had to.

"I know," she withdrew sadly.

"Hey, Naruto," Itachi whispered. Naruto looked up as he said "if you do change your mind, then come meet me at our old clearing. I've left something that will help you find me in the secret place,"

Naruto nodded determinedly, turning away from her teacher and family.

"Bye," she muttered softly, hearing Itachi move to leave, but couldn't resist turning around again and throwing her arms around him one last time.

He smiled, and stroked the back of her head gently. "Sayonara, Naruto,"

She closed her eyes tightly, feeling as Itachi shun-shined away, and as much as she wanted to stay where she was, she knew that she had to go.

Calling to the Naruto kage bunshin to disappear, Naruto replaced her seal and genjutsu and swapped places with the original bunshin.

She had better make sure that the rest of the fight was over.

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><p>EDIT: Thanks guest, who pointed out a grammar issue a few minutes ago on anonymous...hehe...people, apparently this story literally translates to 'Stars of God' instead of 'God of the stars'. Whoops. I'm gonna keep it how it is (can't change at this point!) but thx for telling me! I need to look up some japanese grammar, huh...<p> 


	34. Carrots and zebras

Chapter 34- Carrots and zebras

I live! Whoops. I give up on deadlines. I finally sorted out chapter 1, and if I ever find the will I might update some of the later chapters. The NaruGaa in this fic is something else…which is to say, extremely jerky. Hehe. It really needs work, but I'm lazy…

Quickly before I post the next chapter: a response to a review! It's a guest review, so I couldn't respond privately, so this is the only option.

Guest: How random can you get? The plot is so convoluted that even skipping a paragraph gets you lost in this quagmire. You seem incapable of getting this story to flow smoothly, inserting all kinds of random thoughts and reactions...This is in no way an adventure or a romance fiction as none of the two genres are even close to being the focal point of the story. What this is, is a giant mish mash of thoughts with no structure whatsoever. This if anything, is a parody of Naruto and should be labelled as such, your personal theatre that just happened to be published on this site.

Me: I'm sorry that the story has confused you, but it was meant to be quite random- it has turned out to be a humour fic in the end! I feel that it has improved as I've gone along, and even if it's not smooth, I hope most people enjoy reading it anyway. I can't disagree with the 'giant mish mash of thoughts' point, but I would like to mention that the reason people write stories is to get down their 'mish mash off thoughts' and so whilst I've tried my best to add structure and plot, this is just my own random brain in the end. This site is kind of made for parodies of canon, so I'm not sure where the issue is there. It's a shame you didn't like it, but I'm trying hard with my first fic (and still my only multi-chapter!) so I hope it'll be better some day. And hey, thanks for bothering to read to the end despite it all!

Guest 2: This story is a bit annoying despite being your first, naruto already loving someone is a bit strange. Which also just show that you just planned it somewhat on the run and said " fuck it were going with it the audience will totally not mind me finishing most of this story too fast "

Me: yeah…I realised too, but I don't have the patience to wait for them to fall in love, and so I wanted them to get together quickly. It isn't really intended as romantic. Yup, completely planned as I went along (which is to say I only have an idea of what the chapter will contain as I type it). As I was saying, one day I might redo it, because I know it's pretty disjointed (and I dropped so many plot lines it's not even funny) but meh. I hope people enjoy it enough to move on to the better parts of the story!

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><p>Without any sort of signal, like a cloud of smoke, Naruto shun shinned back into the arena where her clone had previously fought. Looking around, the arena seemed almost like a war zone (she laughed mentally; she was an idiot. It <em>was<em> a war zone) but for some reason everything nearby was covered in water, including Gaara, Fu and a small bunch of chuunin that were collapsed exhausted in the corner.

The clone released itself quietly in an obscure position and Naruto closed her eyes momentarily as she gained the truck load of memories, opening them again as they started to assimilate in her mind.

"Naruto?" Fu suddenly asked, turning to look at the recently returned blonde after moments of staring out across the battle field.

"Fu-chan." She answered, nodding her head slightly to indicate that the real Naruto had returned.

"Naruto-chan!" Fu whispered quietly, and walked over to the blonde, who smiled softly at her best friend and hugged her tightly.

"I'm impressed with your handling of Kisame," Naruto whispered gently into Fu's ear; the green hair that hung choppily around her shoulders swinging as the girl pulled back to look at Naruto.

"I'm glad that you're alive," she replied in turn, hugging the other jinchuriki again as Gaara looked on silently.

"I'm glad that we're alive. I'm glad that all of us are alive," Naruto answered, turning to face the red headed boy as she spoke, who stared down at her stonily.

Disentangling herself gently from Fu, who remained unmoving, the blonde took a step towards her boyfriend.

"Gaara-kun?" she asked carefully, taking another step closer, and another.

"Naruto," he whispered in response, seemingly unable to say any more.

"It's alright, Gaara. We're fine, they're gone and we are all still here," Naruto comforted, and wrapped her arms around her boyfriend's neck. He embraced her carefully, as if she was made of glass, and stared at her questioningly as she pulled back.

"Gaara-kun…you are a wonderful boyfriend," Naruto told him seriously, resting her smooth forehead onto his and staring him straight in the eyes. He opened his mouth to say something, but Naruto leant forward and pressed her lips softly against his.

Fu had the foresight to look away, predicting the outcome of this situation, but others weren't so lucky.

_(Random A/N that should probably wait til the end…meh. Is it bad that I'm reading through my own story and finding parts of this hilarious? Some of it is truly cringe worthy, but others are really amusing me…)_

A chuunin glanced over from the corner and saw the two boys kissing, whereupon he blushed a dark red and lifted a kunai as he spotted that one of aforementioned boys was the Kyuubi container.

Catching a glimpse of Fu's murderous stare, he gulped and slowly put the weapon away, turning back to his friends none the worse for wear (as long as no one was counting the mental scars from the encounter. And no one was, especially not for a sub-par chuunin like him).

On the other hand, a lot of people did care for the old figure that was Sarutobi Hiruzen, who was now stood on the other side of the young couple, flanked by a few ANBU who could be spared and the elders.

Sarutobi coughed once in embarrassment and slight amusement, trying to draw the attention of the boys but it didn't work. However, it did attract Fu's attention who glanced over curiously, froze in place as she saw who it was and then frantically jumped between Gaara and Naruto to get _their_ attention.

"What?" Naruto asked, clearly not happy at being interrupted.

Fu said nothing, just rolled her eyes and pointed in the Sandaime's direction, with a little flick of green hair that seemed to exude 'Baka' in Naruto's general direction.

The blonde turned and blushed heavily as she noticed who had been watching them.

"Oops…sorry, jij," she mumbled sheepishly, rubbing a hand across the back of her neck.

Sandaime laughed. "Don't worry about it, Naruto-kun," he answered kindly, but the girl looked up fast enough to catch a momentary glimpse of disgust in his eyes before they dimmed back to the gentle eyes that everyone else was used to seeing.

"Did you want something, jiji?" she asked in curiosity, apparently recovered from the previous incident.

"Yes in fact, Naruto-kun," he responded a little more seriously. In answer, Naruto straightened up a little bit and grinned.

"Fire away jiji," she beamed happily, more than slightly hyper on the adrenaline of a successful fight.

"I need to tell all of the participants this…but since the exams were cancelled, none of the genin participants will be able to become chuunin,"

Naruto stared at the old man in undisguised shock, her arm falling away from the warm shoulders of her boyfriend.

"W-What? After all that?" she mumbled sadly, and Sarutobi exchanged a look with one of his ANBUs (well, he looked at one of them and Gaara assumed that the ANBU had looked back again- really, it was impossible to tell with those masks on).

"Naruto-" he started, but Naruto shook her head quickly and stumbled away slightly. She looked back once, staring at Gaara beseechingly and then tried to walk away from the scene quietly, her eyes not leaving Gaara once as she tried to leave.

As it was though, this was Naruto and so she walked face first into a rock that had been knocked off the stadium during the fight.

"Itai-tai-tai," she grumbled softly, holding her forehead in between her hands, and the other jinchuriki stepped forwards quickly to help.

"Naruto? Are you okay?" he asked worriedly reaching out a hand to her, only to be abruptly brushed away by a now fuming Naruto.

"It's fine, Sandaime Hokage," she seethed politely, and proceeded to stand up on her own feet and stare hard at the man. "I'll stay a genin even though I'm far above that level. It's not like I could do something like this- Kuchiyose no jutsu!" she suddenly yelled, and out of nowhere popped a carrot.

She stared dumbly at it.

Sarutobi stifled a laugh as he studied the small thing; ugly, with wrinkly skin, it seemed like an _interesting _choice of summon.

"..NANI!?" she yelled in shock.

As if in response, it blinked open previously unnoticed eyes and stared innocently at Naruto, before emitting a small squeak ("Ack! How did it do that? There's no mouth!") and climbing onto recently sprouted feet.

"…scram!" Naruto hissed at it, apparently over the shock of a mutant vegetable becoming her summon (the surprise factor had worn off after the lettuce of doom) and it _eeked_ in fear, scrabbling off from Naruto, falling face first into a hole.

Willing away a sigh, the girl carefully placed the carrot the right way up (it was becoming more obvious who its owner was by the minute) and it fled the area successfully.

"What I meant to do was this!" the blonde flushed and performed the jutsu again.

A cloud of smoke appeared, along with a baby zebra out of nowhere.

It wobbled around the area on spindly legs, slowly but steadily making its way towards Sarutobi (it only tripped over a rock once or several times) and put its legs up on his shoulder.

A bit shocked, the man stayed stock still and looked at the wide eyes of the infant. It stared back innocently, the very same eyes sparkling with cuteness, before it finally lost its balance and fell down (and dragged Sarutobi down with it.

"See! It's an awesome ninja zebra!" Naruto laughed at the picture, and returned to Gaara's side.

It was at that moment Kakashi decided to drop by and report to his Hokage.

"Hokage-sama! Kisame is-"he cut himself off as he looked up.

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><p>Hatake Kakashi had seen a lot of things in his service as a ninja, both good and bad. Some funny, some downright wrong, and others dancing a very fine line between the two.<p>

However, for all of his years as a shinobi, he had never seen his Hokage so bowled over by a small animal.

None the less, he knew this opportunity was not to be wasted and so he pulled out his trusty camera, and took a few sneaky shots.

These were going to be up all over the jounin lounge tomorrow. He could already imagine their faces…

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><p>"It's okay Kakashi. Please continue your report," Sandaime said in a surprisingly commanding voice, considering his current position stuck underneath a zebra, and Kakashi quickly whipped away his camera, bowing towards the man once more.<p>

"As I was saying, Gai and I ended up fighting Kisame. He is now helping his students fight off the last of the invading forces by the West Gate, and Kisame fought back almost overwhelmingly, but-" the silver haired jounin once again was cut off by the arrival of another person.

"Hokage-sama! Reports of Uchiha Itachi just came in off the East Border," an ANBU shun shined in and announced.

Sobering up immediately, Sarutobi pushed the zebra lightly off him (Naruto quickly summoned it back to her side) and stood up.

He turned to look at the three jinchuriki in front of him.

"I'm sorry, I really am, but I have to deal with the remains of this invasion first. I promise to do something about this later," the man promised them, adding on almost silently "but I don't think that you will be able to make chuunin," and leaping away along with his ANBU unit before they could reply.

Gaara quickly laid a calming hand on Naruto's arm; soothing her anger for now. She smiled softly at him, and Fu rolled her eyes.

"That went well," she sighed, and her blonde haired friend grinned at her.

"Could have gone worse though, right? I got some information from-" Naruto abruptly cut herself off as she heard a small cough come from behind her, and both girls turned to look there (Gaara following suit soon after) and paling slightly as she saw the man who stood there.

"…hey, Kakashi-sensei?" she tried hopefully.

In return, Kakashi raised an eyebrow at the three, the facial hair rising further as a baby zebra decided to start nibbling on his jacket.

"Care to explain?"

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><p>Okay, this story is actually almost finished. I reckon two more chapters.<p>

And shout out to Diamondera ( u/5327085/) who I have forced to become a sound board for my crazy ideas, and also has sent me some awesome Naruto pictures. He came up with the zebra…and a slight plot twisty thing coming up. Sorry, Grant…I have a sinister thing planned for the end. You know not what it is XD and I shall not spoil.

Hope you enjoyed!


	35. Last farewells

Chapter 35-Last farewells

Thank you everyone who has stuck with this story, those who were here from the start and those who started reading recently or are reading this long after posted.

I will leave a longer note at the end, after you've read the chapter through.

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><p>Naruto sighed a bit in resignation and turned to face her two companions (the zebra didn't count, and the carrot had long fled).<p>

**"What do you think? Do we tell him everything? Or just a little bit of the truth?" **Naruto used their youkai connection to ask the others.

**"I don't think we can trust him. What reason has he given us to do so?" **Fu responded with a glare towards said man, who stood patiently, waiting for their excuse (or preferably the real reason).

**"I'm sorry Naruto, but I don't think we should tell him it all. Maybe just say how we are stronger than we've made out to be," **Gaara inputted, smiling at the blonde calmly.

She nodded back to her friends and turned to face Kakashi.

"Well? Do I get to hear the truth? Or just another excuse?" he questioned, keeping a straight face as he watched them (he had never pursued the genin about the blood thing; Naruto being injured was enough reason to give him bandages, but he hoped that finally he would be told the truth).

"Well…the truth is that we aren't as weak as you think we are," Naruto stated, deciding that her true gender was not a necessary thing to bring up, nor were the secret activities she had been partaking in outside of the village, not to mention that the jinchuriki meetings weren't her secret to tell.

"We've been hiding our true powers because the village wouldn't accept a powerful monster, so I saw fit to create a mask of such, and survive in Konoha," Naruto briefly explained, purposely staying a little bit vague about what this 'mask' of hers entailed.

The silver haired man nodded once in understanding, not questioning any further about their abilities. It was a start, one that Kakashi hadn't been expecting to get further than when he questioned them for the first time.

As time went on, he could prove to them that he was trustworthy, and learn more about the trio, but for know the man was satisfied.

After all, there was plenty of time for that later on.

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><p>Indeed, as the time began to pass, Kakashi made steady progress with his most unpredictable student and whilst he had plenty of duties to attend to during the clean-up of the invasion and teaching his other two students, the man spent a lot of his time around his sensei's son.<p>

Gaara and Fu had gone back to their respective villages and so Naruto spent her nights divided between her own secrets of the Kami no Hoshi and time with her best friend and boyfriend, and days training with Kakashi and clearing up the village.

Sandaime had seemingly made a full recovery from his admittedly rather light injuries (during the battle he had exhausted his chakra reserves, received a temporarily paralysing senbon to the shoulder and been knocked out by a disguised Naruto) and had so far mentioned nothing more about the chuunin exams.

Naruto was waiting on tenterhooks for any announcements, but no one save Kakashi seemed to notice. The man had come to pick up on his student's ticks, such as rubbing his neck when the blonde was embarrassed or only using taijutsu when bored, and even some of the little things like not adding 'dattebayo' when he was upset.

The boy was so very similar to his mother and father; Kakashi saw both of their personalities in Naruto and both of their features mirrored in his face and build.

He had been to Sandaime many times to see if he was permitted to tell the jinchuriki who his parents were, but as of yet he had not received permission (and was becoming rather frustrated by it). Nothing else had changed, apart from the fact that on Kakashi's last trip to the Hokage's office had seen the old man cryptically state he would be making an announcement during the near future.

This was the reason that everyone in the village was gathering to the centre, the Hokage tower, after a summons had rang out across the town.

Amongst the loud chatter of the crowds stood a silent Naruto, nowhere near any of her 'comrades', who was warily watching the platform where Sandaime was to soon come out and talk to the inhabitants of Konoha. She didn't like this; there was something wrong.

She couldn't figure out for the life of her what it was, but something about this situation was off.

Quietly and subtly, Naruto closed her eyes and sought out Kyuubi.

**"Kyu-chan? Are you feeling this? There's something wrong,"** she said worriedly, and Kyuubi nodded her giant head, tails pounding the ground behind her in cautious anxiety.

**"I agree kit. Please be careful," **the kitsune warned, and Naruto nodded seriously.

**"I will,"** she promised, opening her eyes and carefully edging towards the back of the crowd where it would be easier to escape, keeping a careful watch on the shinobi who stood on the rooftops surrounding the area and noticing absent-mindedly how everyone seemed penned in, guarded by the ninja like they were livestock.

Suddenly, everyone quietened down as the doors at the back of the platform opened and the Hokage walked out, smiling genially at everyone below.

"People of Konoha, it is my pleasure to be standing before you today as leader of a great village that has withstood many trials, stood strong and held its ground against all attempts to bring it down. I am impressed with how quickly Konohagakure no Sato has recovered from the recent attempts to invade by Oto shinobi, and our village is almost restored to its former condition, only improved by all of the security measures that have been added to prevent something like this from happening again.

On this note, I would like to announce that although the chuunin exams were interrupted, all of the Konoha genin candidates had the opportunity to prove their skills on the battlefield and we have given some the chuunin rank in accordance to this, and in thanks for doing their utmost to protect the village,"

Here, the old man paused to withdraw from his pocket a list of names and a storage seal that Naruto assumed contained chuunin vests for those chosen to be promoted.

"And so, without any further ado I would like to announce that Nara Shikamaru, Uchiha Sasuke, Hyuuga Neji, Hitarishi Tenten and Uzu-" Sandaime broke off in the middle of his speech, coughing rather violently.

Naruto froze far away in the crowd, sure that her name had been about to be read out, and realising that this situation was worse than she had expected.

Sarutobi hadn't stopped coughing; in fact he seemed to have gotten worse. A few ANBU gathered around him, noticing what the crowd could not- blood.

They exchanged panicked looks, one of them kneeling beside the man and performing ijutsu to try and get rid of the poison, whilst another fled as fast as they could to get a doctor from the hospital.

Realising what was going on, Naruto frantically searched the area with her eyes, trying to spot the culprit, but seeing nothing. Hurriedly, she threw out her senses and chakra sensors, noticing for the first time the pure amount of shinobi in the area.

Looking closer still, the blonde saw that many of these shinobi were not normal- her chakra could sense an perversion in their chakra, some sort of seal that was placed on the body to stop it from doing something (most shinobi had inactivated seals in their bags, but activated body seals were different, and much easier to sense).

That seal…that particular seal was one that she was rather too familiar with, a seal that she had become accustomed to over her lifetime, one that told her it was time to fight.

It was the symbol of Ne.

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><p>Suddenly worried for her life, Naruto masked her chakra signature and slipped into the shadows where no civilians or shinobi were hidden, preferring to watch the events unfold without being necessarily involved, and it was this that enabled her to be the first to notice when Danzo stepped out from the Hokage's doors.<p>

"People of Konoha," he called out above the ruckus, ignoring the ANBU that were gathered around the Sandaime, next to where he stood.

Everyone quietened down and gave the man confused looks. What was he doing when their Hokage seemed to be taken ill?

Most of the civilians weren't overly worried, not knowing how common it was for poison to be used to assassinate leaders, but most of the shinobi (or at least the more experienced ones) had realised that their Hokage had been poisoned. Out of those, many also knew that the poison was likely to be one that could not be countered by known medicines- it was a spectacular effort to poison the Sandaime, and the user would not have taken half measures with the poison itself.

"The reason the invasion happened is because Konoha is weak. Konoha has allowed itself to grow weak, protected by a meaningless word like 'peace'. It is this false security that lead to the poisoning of our leader, but whilst this a problem, this is also a warning, a warning that we need to train harder and become stronger to protect Konoha. The Sandaime is going to pull through, but-"

At this moment in time, many things happened at once.

Firstly, a senbon was shot from somewhere in the crowd, and it flew straight through Sandaime's neck, cutting his artery and his windpipe, quite efficiently killing him.

Secondly, Naruto was shoved from behind (she looked back in shock; she hadn't sensed anyone coming!? How had they gotten there?)and she stumbled into the back of the crowd.

Apologising sheepishly, the girl looked up and stared squarely into Danzo's cold eyes, just for a brief moment, and then he turned away with an almost unnoticeable smile playing with the corners of his lips, and she blinked in apprehension.

Unexpectedly, someone from behind her yelled "It was the Kyuubi brat! He killed Sandaime!" and Naruto whirled around in shock.

"Me? I didn't do anything! I was summoned here with everyone else!" Naruto defended herself, but it appeared that this was the wrong thing to say, as a few more people turned suspiciously towards her.

"Are you implying that we killed Sandaime Hokage?" a menacing voice asked from her side, but as Naruto turned to face them, someone off her other side said "It was only a matter of time until the bakemono's true colours showed," and Naruto winced, hurt by the comments.

More and more people started whispering about her, and the blonde hung her head.

Once more she looked up, ignoring those around her, and saw Danzo staring vindictively at her. He had never been able to kill the gaki with agents; but this would do the job for him.

"Root! Arrest him on suspicion of murder!" Danzo ordered, making sure his voice carried clearly through the square.

Naruto tensed, seeing the squads all around turn to attack, and sprinted off with no more hesitation.

"He's run for it! He's the one who killed Sandaime!" someone else yelled out after her, and the blonde ran faster, realising that she wasn't going to be able to get out of this one.

Her choice had been made for her.

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><p>Around half an hour later, Naruto stopped running. It wasn't that she was no longer being hunted: that was definitely not the case and possibly never would be.<p>

It was just like Danzo to take the things she loved most and take them away from her.

Angry tears threatened to slip out from her cerulean eyes, but she viciously swiped them away, realising that there was no point keeping up this façade of Naruto anymore. It would just make it easier to find her, and so Naruto closed her eyes silently and released her seal.

The genjutsu flickered away into nothing, the seal now only a remnant of when she could leave in almost peace. From now on, life was going to be tougher, but at least there was one option left for her.

A shinobi alerted the edge of her chakra sensors, and she looked out across her village one last time, before tearing her eyes away and running through the trees.

There was no longer a choice.

She would join the Akatsuki, and keep moving forward.

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><p><strong><em>Finis<em>**

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><p>And so…it is done.<p>

I have loved writing this fic mostly, other times it was a chore which I did so that you guys wouldn't be left to suffer any longer, but for better or worse, this is finished.

It is the way I always planned to end it (I'm so proud that I didn't tell anyone how it was going to end) and thank you to everyone who has read it, favourited, followed and reviewed…I've made some great friends off here (hey Diamondera, lovelydragonfly, ) and as my first ever fanfic, it is sad that I finally lay it to rest.

I hope everyone enjoyed reading it, and so rest in peace, my Kami no Hoshi.


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